Newman-Burgess Showdown Hits Another Block

WOODLAND HILLS — One of these days, hopefully in the City Section cross-country championships Nov. 22, Jamie Newman of El Camino Real High and Tiffany Burgess of Birmingham will race each other when both are healthy.

Newman, the 1995 City champion, defeated 1996 champion Burgess in the Northwest Valley Conference Classic on Oct. 8, but two highly anticipated showdowns since have been short-circuited by injuries.

Newman was forced to drop out of last week’s dual meet against Birmingham with an injured right foot and Burgess dropped out of the Northwest Valley Conference finals at Pierce College on Wednesday because of a similar injury she sustained on Halloween night when she was pushed from behind while touring a haunted house exhibit.

“I knew it would be hard for her and I feel badly for her,” Newman said of Burgess after placing first in a personal-best time of 18:51 over the three-mile course. “I know what it’s like to try to run in pain. It’s not fun.”

Newman and Burgess, both juniors, opened a 20-yard lead on the rest of the field after the first 300 yards of their race. Burgess began to fall off the pace a quarter-mile later, however, and eventually dropped out after 1 1/4 miles.

“I thought maybe I could finish,” Burgess said with her ankle wrapped in two bags of ice. “But it was just hurting too bad.”

With Burgess out, Newman posted a 26-second margin of victory of Taft senior Wendy Chan.

“I just went out to see how I could do and race in the top somewhere,” Newman said. “My main goal was just to finish [the race] and go on to next week.”

Chan, who finished third in the 800 meters in the City track championships in May, led Taft to an upset victory over Birmingham.

Both teams totaled 39 points based on the places of their top five runners. The Toreadors won on the tiebreaker because their No. 6 runner, senior Michelle Duran, finished 16th in 21:04, and Birmingham’s sixth runner, senior Isela Gonzalez, placed 23rd in 22:20.

The top four teams and any individual among the top 15 finishers but not on a qualifying team advanced to the City preliminaries at Pierce on Nov. 12.

Although Burgess failed to finish, she qualified for the prelims because Birmingham advanced as a team.

“I’ll be ready,” Burgess said. “As long as I ice [my ankle for the next few days], it’ll be fine.”

While the Northwest Valley Conference girls’ race was the most dramatic of the day, the Valley Pac-8 Conference meet provided the most impressive individual and team performances.

Freshman Natalie Stein of North Hollywood clocked 17:57 to win the conference’s girls’ title and Monroe placed five runners among the top 10 finishers to win the boys’ championship with 25 points.

Stein, who also ran 17:57 in an Oct. 20 meet against Sylmar, defeated runner-up Princess Acacio of Reseda by nearly two minutes.

Paced by Acacio’s 19:49 effort, the Regents placed four runners among the top seven finishers to post a 29-45 victory over second-place North Hollywood.

Seniors Adam Kaplan and Lupe Delgadillo and sophomore Omar Ortega finished second, third and fourth to pace Monroe to a 25-63 victory over runner-up Poly in the boys’ meet.

Kaplan, Delgadillo and Ortega clocked 16:22, 16:36 and 16:39 in a race that was won by North Hollywood senior Antonio Gavino in 16:08.

Junior Dusty Odum of Kennedy ran 16:25 to win the Northwest Valley Conference title by one second over Birmingham sophomore Mateo Gonzalez.

Birmingham defeated second-place Taft, 28-59, for the team championship.