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Palo Alto Online

Men's title could be the start

by Keith Peters

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Ian Dobson. Donald Sage. Grant Robison. Louis Luchini. Adam Tenforde. They're not the latest boy band. They did, however, band together this season to put themselves in the Stanford history books.

This combination of milers and middle-distance runners showed why they were ranked No. 1 in the nation this season by running off with the NCAA Cross-Country Championships on Monday in Terre Haute, Ind. It was the Cardinal's best finish at nationals since winning back-to-back crowns in 1996-97.

Moreover, with all seven runners returning next season, the future definitely is bright.

"This was a fantastic performance by our men's team," said Vin Lananna, Stanford director of Track And Field/Cross Country. "This NCAA title brought our entire season into focus. We put all the individual stuff aside all year and ran as a team."

Not since '97 has the Stanford men had such of combination of milers, middle-distance and distance runners. That '97 club included Jonathon Riley, Jason Balkman, Nathan Nutter, plus twins Brad and Brent Hauser. If that group put Stanford's cross-country program on the national map, this year's team certainly will keep it there.

"We ran as expected," said Lananna, whose team placed four in the top 10 and scored 47 points to finish 60 points ahead of runnerup Wisconsin. "The guys did a brilliant job, an absolutely great performance. I haven't seen a team dominate like, at this level, in quite a while."

The all-time NCAA low score was 17 points --- two more than a perfect 15 --- by Texas El Paso in 1981. The was the last of UTEP's seven NCAA titles accumulated from 1969-81. Stanford now has three, all under the guidance of Lananna.

The Stanford women's team, meanwhile, finished second in the 6000-meter race with 113 points, 28 points behind defending champion BYU.

Grant Robison's third-place finish in a time of 29:36.7 led the men's pack, the Cardinal's highest individual men's finisher since Gary Stolz placed second in 1992. Louis Luchini (5th, 29:41.0), Donald Sage (6th, 29:44.4) and Ian Dobson (9th, 29:47.2) also had top 10 showings. Adam Tenforde (29th, 30:25.2) completed the Cardinal scoring and Ryan Hall (37th, 30:31.0) joined the five scorers to give the Cardinal a total of six All-Americans. Peter Meindl (99th, 31:07.4) also competed for Stanford.

"We had high expectations going into the season, but this was amazing for us," added Robison. "Having such a strong team took a lot of individual pressure off me."

Alicia Craig (3rd, 19:48) and Lauren Fleshman (4th, 19:48.3) gave Stanford two of the top four runners in the women's race. Malindi Elmore finished 11th (20:01.8) to give the Cardinal three All-Americans. Sara Bei (57th, 20:54.2) and Erin Sullivan (79th, 21:06.0) completed Stanford's scoring. Anita Siraki (110th, 21:22.8) and Jeane Goff (128th, 21:30.1 also competed for the Cardinal.

"Our women's team also did an outstanding job and finished right were they were expected to," said Lananna.

"We ran with integrity and left it all out on the course," added Fleshman after her final collegiate cross country race. "We had a wonderful team dynamic this year. It's hard to explain how much I enjoyed this season."

Earlier, Lananna, Sage and Craig All-Regional honors awarded by the United States Cross Country Coaches Association (USCAA) and the Women's Cross Country Coaches Association (WCCA).

Lananna was named the men's West Region Coach of the Year for the eighth year in a row after leading the Cardinal to its eighth straight NCAA West Regional title in 2002. On the women's side, Lananna shared the West Region Coach of the Year honors with Annie Evans of Arizona State. The women's coaching honor was the fourth for Lananna.

Sage earned West Region Athlete of the Year honors on the men's side for the second straight season after defending his NCAA West Regional title on November 2. Craig earned the women's West Region Athlete of the Year honor after winning the NCAA West Regional title for the first time.