of Manteca, California. Elam is making the most of his senior season, after having to sit out the '08 season following his transfer from CCAA foe Humboldt State. Jimmy ran among the Top-30 early before moving forward into the field and eventually becoming the 'Cats most recent Top-10 finisher among the Stanford field.
Fellow senior Beau Gradone-Rogers who's dealt with some illness issues the week leading up to the meet spotted the field a healthy margin early, then surged forward passing a good number of guys, only to struggle over the final kilometers. Even on a "bad" day for Rogers the senior would finish as the 'Cats #2 and 31st overall. As has been his style the past few years, West Valley HS product Jordan Fairley came to life over the final 2k, eventually placing 33rd overall in a solid 25:12 overall time. Michael Wickman had joined Elam over the initial kilometers but struggled mightily over the final half of the race. To Michael's credit, what appeared to be a "shamble" race at the half way point turned into a descent effort because he refused to completely give into the obvious pain. Michael admittedly doesn't like hot race days, so we knew this might be a tougher one for him. Damage control kept him among the Top-50 overall, and the 'Cats 5-6 duo of Brendan Scanlon and Tim Cannon stopped the bleeding with their 53rd and 54th place finishes respectively.
Given that DI schools like Long Beach State, UCSB, Loyola Marymount, Baylor and Irvine all finished in arrears of the 'Cats helped ease the sting of former conference rival UC Davis beating us for the first time in an XC competition since 2002. To the Aggies' credit, they have a talented group this year and they definitely enjoyed a solid outing in Palo Alto on Saturday. The friendly rivalry continues, and it may be until Stanford 2010 before the next showdown occurs.
Women's 6K:
The best part of running second is that you are able to learn from the mistakes made by those before you. And for yours truly I admittedly had neglected to emphasize to the men that they would need to hold themselves accountable for continuing to move through their field after a conservative start. The women heard a similar pre-race speech, with the addition of the latter, emphasizing that if they were to start conservatively, that they needed to be prepared to run HARD throughout, while taking advantage of those who had started too fast ahead. For the most part, the women did a wonderful job of following this advice as the group did have a conservative start as compared to the overall field. At the half mile the 'Cats fifth runner ran outside the Top-150, which I have to admit, had me a bit worried. As they had a year before Alia Gray and Kara Lubieniecki ran a fast early pace but trailed at least 75 women at the mile mark. During the second mile the pair started to roll through the field, taking advantage of those who had started much too fast. Senior teammate Tori Tyler who has been limited to only 3 days of running per week due to a nagging shin problem, became a bit antsy and left Gray and Lubieniecki despite the fact that they were moving through the field well. Not far behind was fellow senior Julie Shaw who looked strong as she approached the halfway mark of the 6k. At the 3k and 4k marks, a Very large gap had formed between the 'Cats 4 and 5 runners, which started to appear as a threat to any kind of top-team placing today. A group that included Shannon Rich, Sam Racine, Alyssa Flores, Colleen Joyce and Jonah Weeks all ran together, but well behind Julie Shaw the Cats number four runner.
Thankfully some quality work was done during the second half of the race and the 'Cats moved up nicely across the board. Alia Gray spearheaded this drive as she mowed through pack after pack catching and passing NCAA Top-15 placer Jane Larson along the way. Following closely was teammate Kara Lubieniecki who would later flash her amazing finishing skills to catch and pass 5-6 women in the final straight (including Gray). Julie Shaw who has been solid since Day 1 on the CSUC campus enjoyed a similar day following her teammates by 15-20 seconds throughout, eventually finishing among the top 40 overall. Given that Tori Tyler has only been able to run 3 days a week (shin problems) her aggressive early move caused a bit of a backlash as she slid back among the field during the middle
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