Stanford teams continue to improve Stanford teams continue to improve (October 20, 2004) with title runs at Pre-NCAA meet

by Keith Peters

If the Stanford men's and women's cross-country teams wind up defending their respective NCAA championships this season, it really shouldn't come as a surprise.

The women are ranked No. 1 in the nation and the men No. 2. Moreover, both teams continue to race past the competition each week without their strongest lineups in preparation for their national title defenses. At last Saturday's Pre-NCAA Cross Country Meet in Terre Haut, Ind., site of the 2004 national collegiate finals on Nov. 22, the Cardinal women ran without Arianna Lambie, Sara Bei and freshman Shannon Bergstedt and still won by 62 points over runnerup Notre Dame. The men, meanwhile, won by 88 points over Notre Dame with a lineup still in transition. "It was a pretty strong lineup," said Andy Gerard, Stanford men's coach. "There'll probably be some changes made and some decisions to be made before nationals. But, I'm pretty pleased. We're emerging each week and getting a little bit better." Senior Ryan Hall, making his season debut, defeated 251 other runners in capturing one of the two championship races held over the 8,000-meter layout. The 2003 NCAA runnerup clocked 23:54.4 to win by more than two seconds. Stanford scored 77 points to easily beat Notre Dame (165) and Michigan (188). "I had a strong kick to pull away with about 2K to go," Hall said. "It was a great win." Stanford redshirt freshman Neftalem Araia made a second-straight appearance in his home state and finished fifth in 24:01. Araia, the 2002 Indiana state cross-country champ, finished third two weeks ago in the Notre Dame Invitational in South Bend, Ind. "It was close at Notre Dame, but we corrected some things," Gerard said. "We definitely learned some things." Gerard said his team is fairly inexperienced as far as big meets go, "but their learning curve is pretty steep. They're adjusting well to the increase in competition." In the women's 6,000 race, Stanford senior Alicia Craig raced to victory in only her second outing of the season in 20:20.4 to lead a field of 252 runners. The Cardinal scored 49 points to easily beat Notre Dame (111) and North Carolina (129). Senior Anita Siraki was sixth in 20:42.8 and sophomore Katy Trotter was eighth in 20:48.9. Stanford women's coach Dena Evans challenged her team to place three runners in the top 10 and five in the top 20. The Cardinal went 1-6-8-12-22. "That's pretty good execution," Evans said. "We got what we needed. We were able to give others a chance to race, which will only help us later in the season." The Stanford men split its squad for the weekend and still raced to the team title at the Sacramento State Open on Friday at Folsom High School. Stanford scored 18 points and had seven of the top nine finishers. Stanford's Robert Smitson won the individual title with a time of 15:18.1 over 5,000-meter course. Forrest Tadhooahnippah finished third in a time of 15:25.1. Women's volleyball Senior outside hitter Ogonna Nnamani keeps establishing new standards of excellence every time she swings that powerful right arm. After recording 28 kills in Stanford's 24-30, 30-19, 30-20, 30-21 victory over Oregon State on Friday night, Nnamani became just the third player in Pac-10 history to record over 2,000 kills. She already owns the Stanford career mark. Nnamani added 14 more in Stanford's 30-25, 30-17, 30-22 win over Oregon on Saturday for a total of 2,026 heading into an important weekend in Washington. The 12th-ranked Cardinal (6-1, 14-4) travels to Washington State (0-7, 3-17) on Friday before going to Seattle for a showdown with top-ranked Washington (7-0, 15-0) on Saturday. The Huskies ended Stanford's season in the NCAA regional last year, and have beaten the Cardinal in their past two meetings. Nnamani had 57 kills in three meetings with Washington last year. Sophomore outside hitter Kristin Richards recorded her 12th double-double of the season with 17 kills and 14 digs in the victory over Oregon. Against Oregon State, Richards recorded 12 kills and 19 digs while Jennifer Hucke had 10 kills and 10 digs and Lizzie Suiter had seven blocks. Men's water polo Peter Varellas scored four goals to lead second-ranked Stanford team to a 10-5 victory over No. 8 UC Irvine on Saturday in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation game at the Avery Aquatic Center. Stanford also beat UC Davis, 16-8, in a nonconference game on Sunday. The Cardinal (2-0, 13-2) visit Pepperdine in a MPSF contest on Saturday. Tony Azevedo and Thomas Hopkins each scored two goals. Azevedo and Hopkins combined for eight of the 16 goals in the win over the Aggies. Women's golf Stanford shot a 289 on the final day of competition at the Stanford Pepsi Intercollegiate to finish fifth with a three-round score of 869. Arizona State won the event by five strokes with an 852 over Pepperdine (857). Washington took third (861), followed by UCLA (862). Washington State's Anastasia Kostina took top individual honors with a five-under-par 205. Jennifer Tangtiphaiboontana, Lauren Todd and Kelly Husted each shot a 219 to tie for 20th. Stanford returns to the course at the Las Vegas Collegiate Shootout, beginning Nov. 1 in Las Vegas.

E-mail a friend a link to this story.