Retired coach of last California team to win Eastern States girls title reminisces about experience of memorable 1990 trip to New York

By Erik Boal, DyeStat Editor

The rain came and went at the 18th Manhattan Cross Country Invitational, and so did the girls team from Mt. Carmel High, returning to San Diego with the Eastern States Championship trophy.

Then the drought began.

Not since the Sundevils’ victory in 1990 on a rain-soaked Van Cortlandt Park course has a California girls team captured the Eastern States Championship title.

It was also the only time in meet history that California teams took the top two spots in the marquee girls race, with Mt. Carmel prevailing over 1987 Eastern States champion Palos Verdes by a 100-114 margin.

“It was just a great experience for the kids. It was such a fun trip. When I still see some of those kids, they just remember it was such a neat time,” retired Mt. Carmel coach Dennis McClanahan said. “Even though it was raining, the kids didn’t care about that, they were in New York and they were having fun.”

Rain is expected again Saturday morning for the meet’s 46th edition, but Claremont is looking to end the dry spell for California girls programs by joining Mt. Carmel and Palos Verdes as an Eastern States champion.

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“It’s amazing to think that after all this time, that we were the last team to do it,” McClanahan said. “We knew we were going to be a pretty good team and we were going back to race in the Eastern States to see where we would fit.”

Mt. Carmel, which finished 23rd in the country in the inaugural Harrier Magazine national rankings in 1989, entered the 1990 meet as the No. 9 team nationally, with Palos Verdes ranked No. 3.

When Palos Verdes prevailed in the first appearance by a California program in Manhattan in 1987, the Sea Kings were considered the elite girls team in the country, winning the Eastern States title by a 68-point margin, before capturing the inaugural Division 1 state title later that season at Woodward Park in Fresno.

Both Mt. Carmel and Palos Verdes desired an opportunity to race against New York power Saratoga Springs, which finished ranked 13th nationally in 1989. But the matchup never materialized, as Saratoga Springs didn’t enter the Eastern States race.

“We told them we were coming back and Palos Verdes was too. All the stuff that was always written in Harrier Magazine always praised Saratoga and both (Palos Verdes coach Joe Kelly) and I went back there specifically thinking we were going to run against them and then they didn’t run in the race,” McClanahan said. “When we planned the trip, we didn’t plan the trip just around racing against Saratoga, we planned the trip as an experience for the kids. So that was a really neat thing for us to go 1-2.”

The Sundevils had six runners finish in the top 30 to capture the title, led by a sixth-place finish from Susan Scott, but the experience wasn’t just limited to the Eastern States race for Mt. Carmel.

McClanahan brought 16 student-athletes from America’s Finest City to the Big Apple, with a tour of the United Nations building and a ferry ride to see the Statue of Liberty also on the trip’s itinerary. Mt. Carmel also had its experiences documented by a film crew from ESPN’s Scholastic Sports America.

When McClanahan had his request to enter two teams in the Eastern States race denied, Mt. Carmel placed six runners in the top nine of a varsity race to produce a 50-point victory. The remaining two athletes finished first and third in a JV race.

The Sundevils celebrated with an ESPN-organized dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe in Manhattan, where the team was greeted with a rousing ovation from staff and customers alike.

“We had a pretty dynamic team and we were pretty deep,” McClanahan said. “We actually had an ‘A’ and ‘B’ team ranked in the top 10 in the U.S. in the 4xmile that year.”

Mt. Carmel was also part of one of the deepest groups of talent in San Diego history during the 1990 season, with Division 2 state champion San Pasqual finishing No. 4 in the Harrier national rankings and Division 3 state winner La Jolla at No. 9.

The Sundevils, who took runner-up to No. 2 Agoura in the Mt. SAC sweepstakes race along with the Division 1 state final, finished at No. 6 and Palos Verdes was 16th.

But for one day in New York, Mt. Carmel was the talk of not only the Manhattan Invitational, but the entire country, and have remained a significant part of the meet’s prestigious history ever since. Only Great Oak has managed to place in the top three among California girls teams competing in the Eastern States race during the past decade.

If Claremont can capture the Eastern States title Saturday, the achievements of Mt. Carmel and Palos Verdes will again be celebrated as trailblazers for California cross country programs gaining recognition on a national stage.

“Running in the Eastern States Championship was a great opportunity for our kids and a trip that I’ll never forget,” McClanahan said. “The trophy is huge. I walked on the plane carrying it and the flight attendant said, ‘What are we going to do with that?’ Fortunately it wasn’t a full flight, so it had to fit in a seat because they had no other place on the plane to put it. That was a great memory.”