Cross country ready for Big West Championships

Nicole Blalock • Matt Brown/Sports Information

Jimmy Grabow • Matt Brown/Sports Information

 

By Michael Bower
Online Forty-Niner
Sports Editor

Distance Coach Matt Roe and cross country Head Coach Andy Sythe have been preparing for this weekend's Big West Conference Championship run since the beginning of the injury-felt season.

The Big West Championships will be held at Agricultural Fields in Riverside on Saturday at 8:30 a.m. The women's team already conquered the course earlier in the season as they captured their first team title in over a decade, but Roe points out that is no advantage for Saturday.

"A lot of the teams have ran on the course," he said. "Any team that is thrown on the course is going to be familiar with it."

Leading the way for the men's team is junior transfer Jimmy Grabow. Grabow has run well all season long as he moved up to the third-fastest time on the Long Beach State charts with a 24-minute, 23.20-second time at Agricultural Fields on Oct. 2.

"He is our top runner," Roe said. "We expect that he will be in the lead group."

Grabow was named the Big West Athlete of the Week two times this season, and had a first place finish at the UC Irvine Invite on Sept. 11. He has been a huge lift to the cross country program, and could be the best runner the school has seen since Dave Schumacher in 1987.

Leading the way for the women's team is sophomore Nicole Blalock. Blalock has finished atop the women's team eight out of nine collegiate races. Blalock has been hindered by a leg injury, but is quickly regaining her strength for this weekends championship race.

"She is not 100 percent, but she is going in the direction of being 100 percent, and she is gaining the fitness back that she has lost," Roe said.

Blalock finished in the top-10 in three out of the four races she has participated in this season. She held out of the Cal Poly Invite on Oct.16 to rest her leg for this weekends race.

Coach Roe inherited many injuries to both teams since arriving at Long Beach State just one week before the season began, but has been able to overcome the injuries and produce one of the best seasons the cross country teams have seen in a while.

"I think we have had a great season so far," Roe said. "This is the best season for a combined program that we have had in a long long time."

Other runners for the women's team include Meredith Kramon, Crystal Roethlisberger Danielle Miller and Bethany Gardner.

Other runners for the men's team include Kenny Lawerence, Jacob Kruczynski, Jon Breed, Andy Ponce de Leon and Scott Breithaupt.

The men's team was picked to finish eighth in the Big West as the women's team was picked to finish sixth at the beginning of the year. Roe hopes both teams will finish higher than expected at the Big West Championship.

"It is going to take a team effort," he said.

Cal Poly was picked to finish in first place on the men's side as UC Santa Barbara was picked to finish first on the women's side.

After the Big West Championships this weekend the NCAA Regionals would be next on Nov. 13 at Woodward Park in Fresno at 9 a.m. If any 49ers qualify for the NCAA Championships it will be held at Laverne Wilson XC Course in Terre Haute, Ind., at 10 a.m.