Stanford runs to good NCAA tuneups

Cardinal men's and women's cross-country teams capture crowns at NCAA Pre-Meet

by Keith Peters

Vin Lananna has a pretty good idea what it will take for his Stanford men's and women's cross-country teams to defend their NCAA crowns next month. Lananna gained that insight after watching both his teams run to titles at the NCAA Pre-Meet last Saturday in Greenville, S.C., site of the 1997 NCAA championships.

"For the women, we just have to remain healthy," said Lananna, director of the Cardinal cross-country teams. "I think we have control of our own destiny, provided we don't fall apart."

The nationally No. 1-ranked Stanford women certainly looked healthy on the Furman University Golf Course as freshman Julia Stamps led the way with a first-place finish of 16:44 over the 3.1-mile course. The time was three seconds faster than what she clocked while winning the Stanford Invitational two weeks ago.

"She ran intelligently and very relaxed," said Beth Alford-Sullivan, the Cardinal women's coach. "We ran well as a team."

Finishing close behind Stamps was Stanford senior Sarna Renfro in fourth (17:12), junior Mary Cobb in eighth (17:22) and sophomore Sally Glynn in ninth (also 17:22). Senior Kortney Dunscombe was 21st in 17:45. With individual runners excluded,Stanford totaled 39 points to easily defeat Wisconsin (89) and Oregon (107).

In the men's 8,000-meter race, Stanford scored 43 points to defeat one of its chief rivals for the NCAA crown--Colorado. The Buffaloes totaled 72 points with Wisconsin third with 143.

Lananna, however, believes his men's team will need to run better if it's to defend its national crown.

"Arkansas and Michigan weren't here," Lananna said. "It will come down to us, Arkansas, Michigan and Colorado for the title.

Still, Stanford overcame hot (85 degrees) and humid weather to dominate the field. Senior Nathan Nutter led the Cardinal charge by finishing third in 24:19. Brothers Brad and Brent Hauser went seventh and eighth, respectively, in 24:30 and 24:34. Senior Jason Lunn (24:51) and junior Jason Balkman (24:53) rounded out Stanford's effort--both finishing among the top 13.

Freshman Jonathan Riley made his Stanford debut by finishing a solid 20th in 25:07.

Lananna said he has a good idea of his lineup through the top five runners, but there's plenty of flexibility with No. 6 through nine. He'll have more time to experiment before the NCAA meet, including at the Pacific-10 Confernce Championships on Nov. 1 at the Stanford Golf Course.

Back up to the Table of Contents Page