WEST REGIONAL CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS: RIO MESA RUNNER HITS WALL REID'S SEASON OVER AFTER PLACING 36TH.

Byline: Ross Siler Staff Writer

WALNUT - The last announcement made at the Mt. San Antonio College finish line Saturday listed Rio Mesa senior Phillip Reid in fifth place with a mile to go in the Foot Locker West Regional cross country championships. But that was before three weeks of racing caught up to the Oxnard standout.

After hanging with the lead pack for most of Saturday's race - and seemingly on pace to secure a berth in next weekend's national championship in San Diego - Reid fell apart during the final mile and was passed by two- dozen runners over the last 300 yards. He finished in 36th place in a time of 16 minutes, 23 seconds.

``I don't know what happened,'' said Reid, who had to be helped from the finishing chute by trainers and complained afterward of dizziness. ``I felt all right the first two miles, and then I just lost it. I don't know - I just hit the wall.''

In all his years of running, Reid had never suffered such a breakdown before. But Rio Mesa coach Jeff Wrout had a ready explanation: After winning the Southern Section and CIF Division II state championships the past two weeks, Reid ran out of gas in the season-ending all-star race.

``He has had three really hard weeks of racing, right in a row,'' Wrout said. ``He ran a great race today, did everything he was supposed to do. He just didn't have anything left in his tank.

``The biggest thing is that he had a really great season. I know this is disappointing, but he took big strides this year. The (Southern Section) championship, the state championship. ... It's all more than we expected.''

Etiwanda senior Mike Poe led from start to finish and won the boys' race in 15:34. Sophomore Zoe Nelson from Kalispell, Mont., took first on the girls' side in 18:02 over the 3.1-mile course. The top eight finishers in each race advanced to the national championships.

Reid, meanwhile, was making his first appearance in the seeded boys' race, to which he had been pointing since the middle of the season. He entered as one of the favorites after the state-championship victory and moved as high as third in the race order after the first mile.

``Every time he's had some kind of disappointment, he's come back and achieved great things,'' said Wrout, who will give Reid four weeks off before starting to train for track. ``I have no doubt he'll do the same.''

The race brought together the top runners from 12 states, and Antelope Valley of Lancaster sophomore Jose Melena made his mark. Melena wore bib No. 287 but finished 23rd in the boys' race. He was the top sophomore and beat several seeded runners en route to the best area performance of the morning.

Burbank seniors Kyle Ivie and Stratos Christianakis also closed out their high school cross country careers on a positive note. Ivie finished 35th - a step ahead of Reid - and Christianakis 69th in 16:49. Burbank qualified for the state championships this year, despite having only 18 boys in the program.

``It's not every day you get to run with kids from all over the country,'' Ivie said. ``I think I did really well. We stopped doing hills last week, so it felt like I was walking up them. But I was happy with what I did today.''

For Oak Park junior Lauren Morales, Saturday's race was the cap to a sensational season in which the Eagles girls won their second consecutive Division IV state championship. Morales took 98th in a time of 20:30 as the lone area entrant in the seeded girls' race.

``I just wanted to come out and have fun,'' said Morales, whose team was honored in an assembly Friday at the school. ``It was kind of scary because you're all by yourself, you're not with your teammates. But it was exciting to meet some new people to talk to.''

Morales' Oak Park teammate, senior Igor Tregub, took fifth in a boys' age-group race in 17:17. Canyon junior Jace Getskow placed 11th in his race, and Santa Clarita eighth-grader Brooke Russell, the younger sister of Hart High of Newhall senior Whitney Russell, finished third in a middle-school girls' race.