STANFORD INVITATIONAL

STANFORD INVITATIONAL
29 SEPTEMBER, 2007
STANFORD UNIVERSITY GOLF COURSE

After numerous failed attempts and detours to other varied and sundry destinations, we finally made it to what many believe to be the holy grail of west coast cross country: the Stanford Invitational. For this Stanford alum – and former Bay Area cross country coach – this was a homecoming of sorts and a chance to show off the Central Catholic program and our fantastic group of young men on a grand scale.

After a somewhat hectic trip to the airport, where we met up with our traveling physical therapist Doug Dulak, the group settled in for the relatively short flight to San Jose on Friday afternoon, excited by the prospects for this trip. The flight yielded no difficulties, but the intended dinner rendezvous with my former team and their coach – Saint Francis of Mountain View – hit a few snags as rental car lines and construction in and around the airport put us about half an hour behind schedule. As we arrived at the restaurant the St. Francis boys had positioned themselves spaced at different tables, inviting our group to split up and join them. The two teams quickly meshed, with the SF boys quite impressed at our group’s self imposed dress code of shirts and ties. By the end of the meal it was clear that these young men had much in common – from running to college plans to musical interests and beyond. As we exited there was a great feeling of good will on both parts; a special thanks goes out to Coach Brian Curley for making this happen for our boys.

Leaving our San Carlos accommodations early on Saturday morning, we noticed that our van, unbeknownst to us in the evening light, was a beautiful shade of dark red, a fact many felt was a good omen for our day. We, we took a small detour to drive by my former residence – a scant half mile from our hotel. While Hull Drive doesn’t feel narrow in a Mazda Miata, the same cannot be said while traveling in a twelve passenger van. This would not be the last time on this trip that the size of our van became an issue. Despite having to maneuver around a large moving van in the road, we made it to the race course by 9am, intent on seeing the course. Among the first groups we saw were our Oregon brethren, the Crater Comets, fresh from their victory last week at the Bob Firman Invitational in Boise. That victory had vaulted them to the #1 ranking in the Nike Team Nationals NW Rankings, and they appeared here to be a very confident bunch.

Soon we were headed down the 2nd fairway – the same fairway where former Stanford teammate Mark Mastalir assuaged a golfer’s fear of hitting any runners, replying, “We’ll just run right down the middle of the fairway; no one ever hits it there.” Quickly we came upon former DeLaSalle (Concord, CA) Coach Kevin Selby, now working for Flotrack. Video camera in hand, Kevin eagerly interviewed our enthusiastic group; you can access that interview at:
http://www.flocasts.org/flotrack/coverage.php?c=100

As we walked the course we continued to see familiar faces. Steve Boaz of San Luis Obispo high school offered his team’s tent for our gear as we began our morning jog. As Coach Boaz was out on the course when we approached the tent, many in his group were skeptical of my proclamation that “Coach Boaz said we could leave our stuff here.” Asked for evidence of my relationship with Coach Boaz, I was forced to tell these young men and women stories of his youth, at which point we were happily welcomed into the circle.

Jogging the last two miles of the course, there was no doubting the group’s excitement for the afternoon’s competition. Many were appreciative of the beautifully manicured grass on which they’d be running – in stark contrast to many of the bumpy, ankle grabbing courses we commonly see. Interestingly, we had heard some of the California squads bemoaning the lack of paved areas on the course – as many courses in this great state incorporate a great deal of asphalt. Jogging down the final straight we were ushered off the course, directly into the path of Skipper Rick Mileham, a meet official whom I’ve known for many years. Skipper immediately informed us that we were not eligible to compete on this day as “your check bounced.” Given that I hadn’t written a check – and the fact that we’d already picked up our packet – I knew we were ok.

After a quick breakfast and some relaxation time at the hotel we were back at the course in plenty of time for our 3:21pm start. As the boys headed out to warm up two of last year’s stalwarts, Nick Turner and Luke Wiltshire, arrived on the scene bringing a very positive vibe to the proceedings; the two of them had shared in a total of five state team titles, and it seemed that good things often followed them. Nick, now competing at Cal Poly SLO, was there to support both his old teammates and new while Luke, at the University of San Francisco, would be competing later in the college 4km race.

Heading to the starting line the boys had a quiet confidence – even without their #1 man, Taylor Morgan. (Morgan had strained an abdominal muscle in Wednesday’s MHC/PIL meet and did not make the trip.) Before Morgan’s injury we felt confident of a top three team finish; without him a spot in the first eight appeared to be a very worthy goal. We had drawn box #4 on the starting grid, placing us far inside for the first left hand turn 300m down the fairway. At the gun we appeared somewhat unprepared for the sheer speed of a large and talented field and were well back in the early going. JOEL TURKHEIMER ’08 and MUSA AHMED ’10 were our group’s leaders in the first kilometer, followed by SAMOT TURINA ’09. Not far back PETER SLAUSON ’10 and AUSTIN JONES ’08 were in a reasonable position while CONNOR ROLAND-CHICVARA ’09 and CURRAN CARLILE ’10 were well back in their first experience at a meet of this caliber; Curran has built a reputation as an intelligent and savvy runner who starts a bit slowly, but even he was a bit concerned in the early going as he was in the very last group of about 10 runners.

Through the mile our positions had not improved; conservative estimates had Joel and Musa no better than 65th place; Samot was about fifteen spots behind with Austin and Peter no better than 90th in the field of 163. Both Conor and Curran had moved up and were running well. At this point it would have been very easy for our guys to throw in the towel, but we had traveled a long ways to be here and were not about to give up without a fight.

On Friday evening, during our pre-race chat, I told our boys that I’d have lots of old friends at the meet, many of whom knew our program through these post meet reports. I was sure that I’d have a chance to speak with many of these old friends after the race, and there would be only one thing I’d like to hear from them: “Your boys ran hard.”

Our boys did not disappoint.

Onto the backside of the course at 1 ½ miles, our group began to move through the field. Musa caught Joel and the two of them worked together; eventually Musa moved away, but Joel continued to pass people as well. Austin surged away from Peter, but, Peter, too, was running an inspired race.

Under the bridge with 700m to go, Musa was now in the first 35 runners with Joel only 7-8 seconds back; Samot and Austin were together just a few ticks behind, while Peter was still within striking distance of that duo. Over the final small hill and onto the finishing straight, the boys in black continued to pass. At the finish Musa was 31st, and Austin – in the finest effort of his career – was 45th as he caught Joel right at the line. Peter closed as well as anyone in 52nd, a second up on Samot. Conor and Curran had also mounted great charges over the final third of the course, finishing 94th and 113th, both with personal best times (16:52 and 17:05 respectively).

Immediately post race there was great enthusiasm from our group; Austin and Peter had both run incredibly well – solidifying our depth at 5th and 6th man. Austin’s 16:17 was a PR by 26 seconds while Peter knocked 18 seconds off his previous best at 16:20. Musa (16:05), Joel (16:17), and Samot (16:21) had competed fantastically well, despite not having their absolute best days. As we waited for the official results, we were confident that, regardless of the outcome of today’s meet, we certainly would be a team with which to be reckoned in November in Eugene and a week later in Boise.

The final tally had us 6th with 213 points; Crater, in their second huge win in as many weeks, won the race with 167, while our chief 6A rival, Jesuit, was 9th with 239 points. A quick comparison of times indicates that – with Taylor in our lineup – this would have been a very tight race between ourselves and Crater:

CRATER
15:51
16:04
16:09
16:17
16:19

CC
MORGAN
16:05
16:17
16:17
16:20

JESUIT
15:43
16:00
16:26
16:39
16:48

The Stanford meet has six varsity races. Our 6th place effort came in the seeded heat – the most competitive of all the races on the schedule. Comparing our efforts to those in all of the races, a few interesting facts emerge: 1) only one team’s (Crater) 5th man was faster than ours. 2) Conor’s time as 6th man was bettered by only five others. 3) Curran’s 7th man time was the seventh best of all 188 teams racing on this day. Oh, and remember that we were without our #1 man!

Following the race the boys were excited to watch the college races – and see Luke compete for the University of San Francisco. (Luke looked strong, particularly down the final straight as was his trademark at CC.) We were also treated to a post race feast by the parents of the Bellarmine Prep (San Jose) team. Their coach, Patrick McCrystle, is a former Stanford teammate and Jesuit HS (Sacramento) grad – whose science teacher at Jesuit was none other than our principal, Ron Edwards. After a great meal and good t-shirt swap with the Bellarmine boys, we finally made our way to the van with smiles and full bellies. It had been a great day to be a Ram.

Back to the hotel for a quick clean up, and we were off to San Francisco for a short evening in what many claim is the greatest city in America. Unfortunately, this is the point where we began to have issues with our van. Attempting to enter a parking garage near Fisherman’s Wharf, I made a beeline for the only empty lane; of course it was empty because it was the exit lane. After righting the ship we entered only to find that the top of the van was dangerously close to the lowest points of the garage. Luckily I had purchased the damage waiver at the rental counter so we cruised carefree to our parking spot.

We wandered for a couple of hours, with groups stopping at Fisherman’s Wharf, Ghirardelli Square, and, ahem, IN-N-OUT Burger for meals. We saw teams from Adams State College (Alamosa, CO) and Tesoro High (Orange County, CA) also enjoying the city; we saw a few spray paint artists and a juggler, but, alas, did not see the infamous Bush Man. He’s the guy who hangs out near the Cannery with a large, moveable bush. He hides behind it and then jumps out, intending to scare passers-by. Most of the time he is wildly successful – and the crowd loves it.

Sunday morning we – minus Austin Jones, who was taking his official recruiting visit to Santa Clara University – made our way to the top of Huddart Park along Skyline Boulevard to run what my group of running buddies years ago deemed the “Heaven Trail”. This great trail runs along Skyline all the way to Wunderlich Park; I had great memories of this trail and have, for many years, espoused it as one of the best places I’ve ever run. On this day I realized how incredibly spoiled we are here in Portland, as I could easily argue that the Wildwood Trail in Forest Park is every bit the equal of the Heaven Trail. Regardless, the boys had an excellent run.

We checked out of the hotel at noon and made our way to the Stanford Bookstore – armed with burritos from my favorite San Carlos taqueria, Mi Ranchito. Despite having little time to spend on the Stanford campus, it was a worthwhile visit.

Next up for the Ram harriers is Wednesday’s MHC/PIL Crossover Meet at Sandy HS. Freshman boys run at 4pm with the varsity boys at 5 o’clock and the JV boys at 5:30. Please note that many of our varsity boys will not be competing here.

Saturday we’ll be at full strength (with the exception of our seniors taking the SAT) at South Albany’s Brooks Harrier Classic at Bryant Park (Albany). JV boys will get us started at 10:20am with varsity boys at 12:15.

Hope to see you somewhere soon!

Our results linked here:

STANFORD%20%2707.xls

All results from Stanford can be found here:

http://www.sml1.com/recordtiming/stanford/xc_invite07/