Published 2011-09-27T19:52:00Z”/>
Sarah Bohannon
PALO ALTO – The rush of wind from more than 200 runners was the only relief from the hot sun that cross-country fans would feel Saturday at the Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto.
Orange ropes outlined a path that zigzagged across the grass of the Stanford Golf Course.
As soon as the runners were off, so were the spectators running in every direction, trying to figure out which way the maze of ropes led so they could cheer their runner on.
Most spectators had a tough time keeping up with the runners except for last year’s top women’s runner, Chico State’s Kara Lubieniecki, who could be found running next to her friend and former teammate, senior Alia Gray.
“We’ve always raced together,” Gray said. “She actually found me during the first half-mile of the race and ran most of the race with me.”
It seems Lubieniecki’s support of Gray paid off.
Gray led the women’s team to eighth place out of 32 teams, most of them Division I schools, with a time of 21 minutes, 26 seconds and placed 24th out of 278, beating her last year’s rank of 38th.
Right behind her was junior Amy Schnittger with a time of 21 minutes, 45 seconds, improving from 68th to 39th this year.
Schnittger was followed by senior Katie Spencer, who scored third for the ‘Cats, senior Shannon Rich who scored fourth and senior Stephanie Consiglio who scored fifth.
The Stanford Invitational is an intense race because of the amount of people in the race, Rich said. The hardest part is actually the start.
“People are sprinting out, and then they like stop in front of you, and they’re swerving,” she said, “it’s like ‘Oh my gosh, get out of my way.'”
The ‘Cats knew they had to get a quick start on the large, flat course that is known to have runners “screaming” or hauling quickly in the beginning of the race, Gray said.
“If you don’t get out quick enough you can get caught in the back,” Gray said. “You end up running slower than you want to or slower than your fitness level which is always a bummer.”
With a score of 250 points, the women’s team placed eighth out of 32 teams. The ‘Cats held their own against Division I teams like Stanford, UC Davis, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and UC Santa Barbara.
They outran conference teams by hundreds of points. Cal Poly Pomona was the second team to place in Chico’s conference, scoring 596 points.
The men’s team also dominated, finishing fourth after Stanford and UCLA. UC Santa Barbara claimed third place nine points ahead of Chico State.
“We were kind of hoping we’d get at least third,” junior Adrian Sherrod said, “but somehow Santa Barbara nudged in front of us.”
Coming off hard workouts from the previous week, the team was sore and tired, some of them were even sick with the flu, Sherrod said.
Despite their inflictions the team somehow managed to move up two places and racked in a score 37 points better than last year’s.
“We finished fourth in combination with a bunch of D1 schools,” first non-scorer senior Joshua Linen said. “We have a long season ahead of us still so this is just like where we are for right now. It’s a good spot to be.”
Unlike the women’s team, it was the mostly the youth of the men’s team who scored Saturday.
Sherrod led the men’s team with a time of 24 minutes, 23 seconds, blasting away his last year’s time of 24 minutes, 49 seconds and moving from 40th place last year to 14th this year.
Sophomore Isaac Chavez was the team’s second scorer coming in at 26th place with a time of 24 minutes, 37 seconds, and freshman Johnny Sanchez scored third for the ‘Cats with sophomore Alfonso Cisneros coming in right behind him.
Senior Joey Kochlacs landed in 44th place with a time of 24 minutes, 57 seconds.
Although the Wildcats were happy with their performance, most said they had gone into the race sore and tired from intense workouts.
And it doesn’t look like rest is coming soon.
Both teams travel to Salem, Ore., Saturday to run the Willamette Invitational.
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<strong>Sarah Bohannon can be reached at</strong>
<em>[email protected]</em>
