KINNEY WEST REGIONAL CROSS-COUNTRY MEET : Casillas Fades; Wilson Vanishes

FRESNO — A race billed as a showdown between undefeated seniors Margarito Casillas of Hoover High and Ryan Wilson of Agoura ended in bitter disappointment for both Saturday in the Kinney West regional cross-country championships at Woodward Park.

Casillas, the defending West regional champion, finished 48th with a time of 16 minutes 2 seconds over the 5,000-meter course, 59 seconds slower than he ran on the same course last week to win the state Division I title.

Wilson, who won the state Division II title this year and finished third in last year’s Kinney West regional, failed to finish.

Agoura sophomore Amy Skieresz finished second and Nordhoff senior Karen Bockel was seventh in the girls’ race. Both qualified for next week’s national championships in San Diego.

The top eight finishers in each of the boys’ and girls’ races advanced to nationals.

Hoover Coach Greg Switzer hypothesized that the pre-race hype surrounding the first meeting of the season between Casillas and Wilson caused both to “fold up like a house of cards in a windstorm.”

Casillas said his legs gave out in the last half-mile.

“I felt good at two miles,” Casillas said. “But my legs just locked up in the last 800. I felt like I was walking. There was nothing I could do about it.”

Casillas appeared for most of the race to be on his way to qualifying for nationals.

He was in fifth place at the two-mile mark (9:35) and had moved into fourth before his legs deserted him.

Wilson, who was among the top 10 runners at the mile mark, could not pinpoint the reason he dropped out.

“There is no reason for me not to finish this race,” he said dejectedly. “I felt fine before the race, but once the gun went off I just got real nervous. The field went out a little faster than usual, but that should be expected in a race like this. . . . There is no real excuse for (dropping out).”

Theo and Tim Martin, senior twins from Page (Ariz.) High, finished first (14:57) and second (15:00).

Thousand Oaks junior Chadd Aldrich was the top finisher from the region in 16th place (15:37).

Aldrich improved by 43 seconds the time that placed him 48th in the state Division I championships.

Skieresz ran a well-paced race to finish second (17:27) behind Fallbrook senior Milena Glusac (17:11), who won her second consecutive title.

Glusac (5:19) and Buena Park junior Carrie Garritson (5:21) blasted through the first mile, but Skieresz (5:25) was content to bide her time in 10th place before moving into second at two miles (11:08). “I just wanted to go out at my own pace,” Skieresz said. “I wasn’t really racing Milena. I just wanted to qualify.”

Bockel, a foreign-exchange student from Germany who has run 4:36.07 in the 1,500 meters, tapped into some of that speed in the final 200 meters to move from 10th to seventh.

Fillmore senior Maribella Aparicio, who placed fifth in last year’s West regional, finished 20th in 18:44 after fading rapidly in the last mile.