By Steve Brand, Special to the U-T 8:05 P.M.NOV. 25, 2013

State Cross Country Championships

When: Saturday.

Where: Fresno.

Course: 3.1 miles at Woodward Park.

Who: Included in the field will be boys and girls individual and team champions from each of the San Diego Section’s five divisions.

Erik Armes was hoping he could quietly return to San Diego — not make a big splash, fly under the radar.

Sure, like a cruise missile.

By finishing second in the San Diego Section Division IV championships Saturday, the Islanders junior positioned himself right where he wanted to be for Saturday’s State Cross Country Championships at Woodward Park in Fresno.

In the section meet, Armes got a strong test from Valley Center’s Bannon Greer — no stranger, as it turns out — and over the final quarter mile was unable to respond to a strong surge, suffering a rare setback by 10 seconds.

Armes was raised in Carlsbad, where he raced Greer in the sixth and seventh grade. But from the eighth to the 10th grade he lived in Okinawa because of his father’s military deployment, dominating the Far East Region in cross country and track for Kubasaki High. Only a stress fracture slowed his progress.