Jim Grabow is on his way to a first place finish at the UC Irvine Invite Saturday. It was his first race as a 49er. Yulian Danusastro/Daily Forty-Niner

 

Cross country takes one step at a time

By Michael Bower
Daily Forty-Niner
Sports Editor

The men's and women's cross country teams have a mission for the 2004 season – to use the early season to prepare for the conference and NCAA championship.

After being forced to delay its season opener for a week, the cross country team took a stride forward at the UC Irvine Invite in Huntington Beach last weekend.

Jim Grabow ran as advertised by Head Coach Andy Sythe as he won the men's 8K race with a time of 25 minutes, 21 seconds. Sophomore Nicole Blalock led the women's team with a seventh place finish in the 5K run with a time of 19:04.7.

The men's team placed sixth while the women's team placed fifth overall.

Sythe said he was pleased with the results of the season opener, but pointed out that he doesn't have a full team running yet.

"When we put our full squad together, as long as we remain healthy, we will have a good conference championship,” Sythe said.

The 49ers are limping into the season after a horrific summer in which many runners were hurt by the workout program set up by former coach Geoff Masanet.

Grabow, running in his first race as a 49er, took the lead at the half-mile mark and never looked back.

"Anytime you're running by yourself you're doing all the work,” Sythe said. "You are the target. You are straining more. Other runners run off you, and even exploit your weaknesses, but [Grabow] showed no weaknesses [last] weekend.”

Blalock continues to impress Sythe with her ability to run her own race. Blalock finished just one second behind UC Irvine runner Kim Ramirez, who was running on her home course.

"Getting familiarity is very helpful,” Sythe said. "That is why I was impressed with [Blalock] never running on that course before and challenging [Kim Ramirez].”

Although Sythe said he was happy with the results of the race he realizes both teams still have a long ways to go.

"We only look at this as a stepping stone,” he said. "We by no means are going to get complacent. We have a long way to go, but we felt like we came a little closer this weekend. There was certainly some progress from what we seen in this race, and what we've seen in the past.”

Cross country doesn't have conference games like other sports such as baseball and volleyball, instead they have competitions which help runners stay in shape and practice strategy.

"None of these guys have run their best race of the year,” Sythe said. "Everything we do is to do well in conference and the NCAA regional.

The cross country team will be back in action when they head north to participate in the Stanford Invite on Sept. 25.