HIGH SCHOOL CROSS-COUNTRY : Unranked Thousand Oaks Upends Hart

The Thousand Oaks High boys’ cross-country team, unranked in the Southern Section 4-A Division, stunned Hart, ranked No. 1 in the 3-A, Saturday in the Palos Verdes Invitational.

The Lancers, who lost to Marmonte League rival Westlake two weeks ago in a dual meet, combined for an 86-minute, 33-second team time for their top five runners to edge Hart, which totaled 86:39, in the meet at Palos Verdes High.

The result was a pleasant surprise for Lancer Coach Jim Dunlap.

“I was on Cloud 17,” he said. “I didn’t really think we would do this well. This was completely unexpected.”

Thousand Oaks was led by junior Greg Hurlock, who finished first in the race among each team’s No. 3 runners. Hurlock clocked 12:02 on the hilly, 2.2-mile course.

Junior Erik Spayde (11:45) and sophomore Sean Patrick (12:09) also helped the Lancers with sixth-place finishes in the No. 2- and No. 3-man races.

Hart junior Billy Dixon won the No. 2-man race in 11:51. Keith Grossman (12:23) was fifth for the Indians in the third-runner competition and senior Steve Lepken finished eighth in the race among the No. 1 runners.

Palos Verdes finished third in 87:03 and Westlake, led by No. 3 runner Keith Johnson’s second-place effort (12:10), combined for a 90:05 team time, good for sixth.

In the girls’ competition, Westlake’s Jeannie Rothman (13:39) outlasted Erica Sunni (13:40) of Long Beach Wilson to win the No. 1-runner race.

The Warriors (106:47) finished third in the team standings behind two-time defending state Division I champion Palos Verdes (101:51) and San Diego’s Mt. Carmel (102:42).