Lane takes down Baxter’s mark at Lake Casitas in season debut

By Erik Boal, DyeStat Editor

No races since June for Claudia Lane – no problem.

No hill repeats in preparation for the Ventura County Preview Twilight meet – no issue.

The all-time 3-mile Lake Casitas course record – no longer.

RESULTS

Despite pushing back the start of her season due to tightness in her right hip, the Malibu CA junior wasted little time producing her first significant performance and returning to the ranks of the nation’s elite.

Lane clocked 16 minutes, 32 seconds Wednesday on the familiar course in Ojai (Calif.), eclipsing the 2013 standard of 16:37 established by former Simi Valley High standout Sarah Baxter.  INTERVIEW

“The training has been a little different this year. I’ve been doing more cross training just because of the tightness,” Lane said. “I started really getting back into running and doing my long runs about two weeks ago, so I was very nervous and very anxious about this race. But when I got to the starting line, I just remembered my love for running and I knew that would carry me through and it made me so happy.”

Lane came through the first mile in 5:10 and surpassed the 2-mile mark at 10:53, before lowering her previous-best performance on the course from last year by 31 seconds. Along with Lane, only Baxter and Mission Prep graduate Jordan Hasay – both four-time California state cross country champions – have run under 17 minutes at Lake Casitas.

“It was a little surprising, I did not expect to run that time. I was pretty nervous, I didn’t think I was going to be able to get a good time because I haven’t done hills in so long,” Lane said. “The uphills were a little bit difficult, just because they were like hill repeats, but at the end, I felt good and felt strong and I didn’t feel my hip at all, which I’m really happy about. I’m definitely going to go home and stretch a bunch and keep doing my strengthening stuff, but I’m just so glad to be back and I just feel so grateful for all of this.”

Although Lane had only completed three runs of seven miles or longer in preparation for her season opener, being able to hold a 5:35 to 5:40 mile pace during a recent workout gave Malibu coach Mark Larsen the reassurance that the reigning Foot Locker national champion was ready to race again.

“I was really happy with the way she was attacking the hill. She was working hard as she crested and she was using the downhills to her advantage,” Larsen said. “She looked comfortable and she looked good. I didn’t want her pushing too hard and she wasn’t, so I’m really excited about the rest of the season.

“We thought Twilight would be the first good one to run. It’s a great course. It’s got a nice even amount of hills, but nothing too crazy, so she can really just have fun out here and go at it and it’s not a high-pressure situation.”

Not only did Lane finish 2:44 ahead of girls runner-up Janiah Brown of Calabasas CA, but she posted a faster time than all 236 runners that completed the boys 3-mile race, including winner Jackson Ballantine of Santa Barbara CA (16:58.6).

“Getting over this tightness, I was so excited. I’m so happy to be back here racing again,” Lane said. “I knew I was going to have too much adrenaline and it’s been feeling better lately because I’ve been stretching it out so much. I definitely didn’t think I was going that fast.”

By the time Lane ran 17:09.6 at the same meet last year, it was her fifth competition out of 14 races during the season. Although the wait to finally debut Wednesday required a lot of patience on Lane’s behalf, she knew in the big picture, it was the right decision.

“We’ve been working really hard over the past two months just trying to get her dialed in and getting her stronger,” Larsen said. “At the beginning of the season, there were things that we wanted to focus on and so we did. We changed the workouts, we changed the way she was attacking the workouts and tried to strengthen things that would make her a better runner. As you can see, she’s feeling really strong right now.”

In addition to Lane, Ventura CA also repeated in the 1.85-mile girls competition, placing five runners in the top eight for a 22-47 victory over Thousand Oaks. Sofia Ramos (11:21.2) and Madeleine Locher (11:24.2) took the top two spots to lead the Cougars.

Foothill Tech CA swept the boys and girls 3-mile team victories, with Thousand Oaks – led by Mitchell Burr (9:39.7) – prevailing 30-45 over Ventura in the boys 1.85-mile race.

Foothill Tech defeated Dos Pueblos 57-78 in the 3-mile girls race and posted an 87-105 win over Newbury Park in the boys competition.