It's all in the genes for Crescenta Valley's Torres

Phil Torres has made a living off compiling scouting reports on opposing hitters and pitchers as a former semi-pro baseball player and the current varsity coach at Crescenta Valley of La Crescenta.

So, it only seems natural that his oldest son Zack has benefited from some research of his own on his way to becoming one of the state's top distance runners.

The information came in handy Saturday at the 28th annual Woodbridge Cross Country Classic, as Torres benefited from a smart race strategy to come on strong in the latter part of the 3-mile race to take second in 14 minutes, 26 seconds, trailing two-champion Mac Fleet (14:22) of University City of San Diego.

"I have notes at home on all these runners," Torres said. "I thought Mac ran an amazing race and it's a privilege to race against such a great competitor. Now I know what we all can do and I'll use that information the next time I race against him."

Torres, who has balanced running track and playing baseball for his dad during the spring, lowered his school record by 11 seconds on the Woodbridge course, but some modifications to the layout - namely the addition of a couple of sharp 90-degree turns - didn't allow him to go as fast as he would've liked.

"I was hoping for a better time, but they changed the course a little bit and we weren't able to maintain the type of speed we're used to," Torres said. "I couldn't kill myself (the first mile), but I knew had to push it to keep up with these guys. I had run this race a thousand times in my head and I knew that's what I had to do to beat them."

Torres closed the gap on Fleet by 16 seconds from last year's meeting, moving him into a tie for 13th all-time meet history. Fleet's 2007 mark of 14:17 is tied for third on the Woodbridge performance list.

"His dad (Dale) was a state champion in the two mile and my dad's a baseball coach," Torres said. "It's exciting to know that I'm running with the big dogs."