The Molly Grabill who won yesterday's Division I cross country race at the Bronco Invitational bore little resemblance to the one who competed last year.

For starters, this Molly Grabill is now a sophomore at Rancho Bernardo High, a year older, a year more mature and definitely a year faster.

Her winning time over the 2-mile Kit Carson Park course that includes one challenging hill was 11 minutes, 6.51 seconds – 45 seconds quicker than her sixth-place finish a year ago.

It was 31 seconds faster than the course record, which, according to meet director Terry Dockery, was set a year ago by La Costa Canyon's Katy Andrews. That's fast company.

The first three runners – Grabill, Torrey Pines junior Megan Morgan (11:16) and Falcons sophomore teammate Alli Billmeyer (11:17) – were under the old mark.

So, Grabill, who lost her shoes and had to run in a new pair purchased yesterday morning, is competing for fast times?

“No, I just focus on my race,” said Grabill, who trained up to 40 miles a week during the summer.

Last year, she said she didn't train 40 miles the whole summer.

“I feel so much more relaxed now,” Grabill said. “I wasn't focused on breaking 11 minutes today. I don't want to burn out.”

Much like the boys Division I champ, San Pasqual's Kenneth Raedel, Grabill used the long hill to make her move and open a gap on the two Torrey Pines runners, who were running step for step with her midway through the race.

“We call it Three-Stage Hill because it really has three parts,” said Grabill. “The last part is the hardest because it's steepest and you've already run two stages. I pushed hardest on that last part.”

And it was no longer a race.

In much the same manner, Raedel (10:03) ditched Torrey Pines' Dillon Jack by surging on the hill and managed to open a large enough gap to discourage Orange Glen's fast-finishing Diego Vega, who captured second eight seconds back.

“Up the big hill, I pushed it hard,” Raedel said. “Usually I take it easy on that hill, but I pushed until I didn't hear (competitors') footsteps any more.

“After that I asked people alongside the path how far back the others were. I'm ahead of last year. I just wanted to win.”

He didn't despair that his time was one second slower than a year ago because in 2007 he had plenty of company and this time he was the one setting the pace, doing the hard work.

The senior acknowledged he's motivated by his disappointing 25th-place finish at last year's state cross country championships.

“It was my first state meet and mentally I wasn't prepared,” he said. “You really feel bad afterward when you know you could have done better. It was a learning experience and I've used it for motivation.”

In Division II, Escondido Charter senior Kyle Broxterman captured the boys title at 10:13, and sophomore Katrina Mecklenburg of Cathedral Catholic turned in an impressive performance in the girls race, winning by 17 seconds in 12:18.

Steve Brand: (619) 293-1854; steve.brand@uniontrib.com