Two-Time Champions:
Dathan Ritzenhein (1999-2000)
Erin Keogh (1985-86)
Melody Fairchild (1989-90)
Abdirizak Mohamud (1996-97)
Erin Sullivan (1997-98)

California Preps close out season at Foot Locker Nationals 
by Doug Speck
     Some of California's super group of 1998 Cross-Country stars 
had their season end up at the Foot Locker Nationals Saturday, 
December 12th, at Orlando, Florida's Oak Ridge Golf Course in 
Disney World.  The results were very pleasing, with the West 
Girls' group recording the second best team score ever with their 
25 point winning total, powered by the 2-3-6 of Lauren Fleshman, 
Sara Bei, and Trina Cox.  Felicia Guiliford (NM 4th) and Abby 
Miller (Nv 10th) helped with the scoring, with 25 points enough 
to defeat the rest of the nation put together on this day.  Katie 
Moon (Wy 13th) and Golden stater Allyson Marquand (16th) closed 
out the California domination.  Combining the top five scorers of 
the top finishers from all other regions gave the rest of the 
country a total of 30, showing that "the west is the best."  
Well, maybe most of the time, but it was nice to be able to brag 
here today.     
     On the Boys' side Adam Tenforde (WA 3rd), Regional Champ 
Josh Rohatinsky (Ut 5th), Ian Dobson (Or 7th), joined with 
Californian's Josh Spiker (14th) and Idaho's Jed Barta (17th), 
with Celedonio Rodriguez (18th) and Arizona's Juan Reyes (20th), 
as the Western group had a 46 point total for second behind a 
strong Midwest total of 28.  
     The Girls' race came first.  The course proved to be 
deceptively tough, with the runners aimed through most of the 
rough parts of the course, and purposefully taken over areas that 
had a number of brief "ups and downs" that constantly broke up 
consistent rhythm.  The Girls' winning time would end of up being 
the slowest ever in the twenty years of the championships.  
Looking at the course beforehand one would have doubted that 
seriously.  I was told by long-time Florida prep coach Fred Finke 
as I entered the park on Saturday morning that it would run 
deceptively slow with the lay-out that had been changed since 
last year, and he was sure right.  The Girls' pack was out at 
5:32, with defending champ, Erin Sullivan (Vt), only sixth in the 
Northeast Regional, close to the lead, and taking over after that 
point.  Lauren Fleshman was at the trail end of the lead pack 
there, but most of the western team was back in the pack.  Later 
they would comment that racing at Mt. SAC in the Regional had 
kind of put them in the mode of sitting back a bit at the start, 
then moving strongly the last two miles over the hills there.  
They would do some moving here also, eventually racing away to 
the dominating team score discussed above.  Anyway, out front, 
Erin Sullivan was away to the races, with the Western blue-clad 
pack, led by Sara Bei, Felicia Guliford, and Trina Cox, moving up 
to challenge the early leaders, the Northeast, in their Black 
singlets.  Bei was fully sixteen seconds behind the leaders 
through the mile, with the undefeated Northern Californian 
eventually moving up to challenge Fleshman for second during the 
last mile.  The two Californians battled, but Sullivan ran 
through the finish with a forty meter margin before they could 
establish contact, with Fleshman nipping Bei for second.  
Guliford and Cox, who always seems to run a perfectly paced race, 
slammed the door on the rest of the nation with four in the top 
six!  It was a great run by a great group who seem to possess all 
the characteristics of true champions.    
     Ian Dobson (Or), a tall, smooth strider with seemingly great 
ability (and coached by early 1980's female qualifier here, 
Marnie Mason), set the early pace in the race.  The first mile 
mark came by at 4:52 over the interesting terrain, with Jorge 
(say it "George") Torres, from Illinois as the only four-time 
qualifier for these championships and runner-up last year, making 
two planned moves over the next half mile.  Northeastern stars 
Andy Powell, Franklyn Sanchez, and Louis Luchini tried to first 
match his move, with Powell (12th) and Sanchez (13th) evenutally 
fading to surprisingly low placings.  Meanwhile, Adam Tenforde 
(say it "ten-fordy"), not pleased with his effort in the Western 
Regional, had planned a big late-race move, which he put into 
action after two miles, eventually knocking Torres' lead from 
eight to three seconds before hitting the wall himself.  Luchini 
came back to take Adam for second, with Tenforde showing real 
courage in his tactics.  Guess where he is going?  Adam has 
signed at Stanford!!!  Joshua Rohatinsky was never too far behind 
the action, ending up fifth, and is the top returning athlete for 
next year with that placing.  Ian Dobson is the next returning 
junior with his fine seventh place run, as Californians Josh 
Spiker (the fourth overall returnee--worth getting excited about 
1999 already!!!!), Idaho's Jed Barta (17th), Celedonio Rodriguez 
(18th), and Arizona's Juan Reyes (20th) closing out the West 
running.  
     Jorge Torres was joined by brother Edwardo (6th), 4:12 miler 
Jason Hartmann (Mi-4th), Hartmann's Rockford (Mich) HS teammate, 
soph Dathan Ritzenhein (8th), and Joe Barnes (Oh-9th) as the 
Midwest totalled only 28 points to take this half of the meet.  
     It was definitely warmer during the Boys race, with the sun 
out and the humidity really rising off the grass. Hartmann (4th) 
who is from Michigan, where they have had a very mild winter, 
replied that he almost collapsed at the finish from the 
conditions, with the placings of season-long Northeast stars 
Powell (12th) and Sanchez (13th) unexplainable except for the 
effect of the mild humidity and temperatures in the 70's.  
     Again, Rohatinsky and Dobson are the top underclass 
returnees from this race, with Spiker #4 overall, and Reyes a 
junior from Arizona.  Bei and Guliford are the top underclass 
returnees on the Girls' side, so, as we mentioned above, 1999 
could be super!!!
     The action from the December 12th Championships can be seen 
on ESPN's "Race of the Month" on December 22nd at 2:30 pm Eastern 
Standard time (that's 11:30 am just before noon) here out west, 
with it also available on December 26th at 1:30 am (that's 10:30 
pm our time).

Foot Locker National Notes--
--the Foot Locker group, lead by Jeanine Lavin-Zocks (she just 
married Adam Zocks) did its usual super job of hosting the young 
people and their families once again this year.  The 
accomodations at the Disney Resort Yacht Club were fantastic, 
with the planned banquets on Friday and Saturday evening grand!  

--Foot Locker brought in former champions Ellen Lyons, Brent 
Steiner, Kira Jorgensen, and Connie Jo Roberson.  Part-sponsor 
Adidas had stars Todd Williams, Jennifer Rhines (who just married 
former La Habra HS star Terrance Mahon), Alan & Shayne Culpepper, 
Laura Henes, and Mark Croghan in attendance.  The group made a 
fine panel presentation Friday evening, spent time with the 
athletes, and added to the race day atmosphere with their 
presence.  This "bridging" of the generation of runners is so 
very significant, with most who had been at Foot Locker while 
preps (above champs plus Williams, Rhines, Alan Culpepper, and 
Henes (formerly Laurie Gomez) verbally indicating the importance 
of the Foot Locker series in their development to a national and 
international level.  

Poignant moments--
--The emotion on Sara Bei's face as she gives Lauren Fleshman a 
hug after the finish (I'm sure they will include it in the ESPN 
show tape).  It's been a long and glorious soph year for the 
Montgomery HS star, with one understanding the ability of a 
picture to tell us a story of a couple thousand words as the 
young star gives into the emotion of the moment.    
--Allyson Marquand and her feelings as she realizes after she 
finishes that this may be her last Cross-Country race as the Uni 
(Irvine) flash heads to Stanford on a soccer scholarship that may 
preclude this sport in the Fall. 
--Abby Miller, ever the over-achiever, lamenting the fact that 
she will probably not have any attention now from college coaches 
after placing 10th overall.  (Sure, tenth in the whole country as 
an eleventh grader with five ahead of you graduating seniors and 
with Abby never having a grade below an A since the second 
grade!).  
--Felicia Guliford, a true junior high student at Gallup JHS in 
New Mexico, unassuming as can be, placing fourth overall as the 
only ninth grade athlete in the entire meet.  
--Trina Cox, who has come across as the world's happiest person 
after her super-well paced efforts in the Western Regional and 
her sixth place effort here, then getting to the airport and 
finding she left her plane ticket home back at the hotel 
(Continental was very, very understanding and it was all 
straightened out very quickly) 
--Adam Tenforde, stating to the coaches how upset he was at 
himself near the end in the Regional, here planning and executing 
a late move that had him come close to stealing the race.  Adam 
will be heard from in a big way in the future, with his body type 
and running style appearing to favor longer than the prep 
distances.  
--Josh Rohatinsky, fifth here and the top eleventh grader, after 
a month back being so sick at the finish of a post-state Utah 
All-Star Meet, where he finished sixth (!) and was in such bad 
shape with low blood iron that the paramedics wanted to take him 
to the hospital.  
--Ian Dobson, following in the trail of former Klamath Falls 
stars Tracy Garrison (2nd Boys race 1983) and Marnie Mason (1984 
Girls 8th placer), with the latter his current Coach (now Marnie 
Mason-Johnson), loping along with the early lead, looking very 
comfortable there.  A tall, economical runner (6'2 and 140), 
Dobson looks capable of eventually tackling Garrison's amazing 8:17.1 3000m 
school record, as Ian was 8:50 in the spring of 1998 as a soph!  
--Josh Spiker, winning awards in the miniature golf tournamount, 
adding to his super junior season as the country's number four 
finishing underclass athlete here, with his fourteenth place.  
--Celedonio Rodriguez, not even his own League Champion this 
Fall, continuing to amaze with his progress to this competition, 
ending as among the top twenty in the entire nation with his 
excellent eighteenth place effort.  "Celie" indicated that he 
felt a little confused in the race, sensing he had more power 
than he was able to produce (but then he had never traveled to 
the east coast, raced when his body told him it was 7:40 am after 
spending two nights in a strange bed with all the Foot Locker 
weekend excitement).  He has come a long ways from the 9:43 3200m 
runner he was last spring!  
--Juan Reyes, dog tired after the long weekend, taking off solo 
down a long airport corridor in Houston, probably ending up 
somewhere eventually in West Virginia on a piper cub if Coach 
John Norton had not had a pang of conscience and gone in search 
of the Arizona star.   

It was a great group that closed out a great year in the greatest 
competition available in our great sport. 

Enough for now-----


Results of Meet (with much else) currently available at Fred
Finke's excellent Florida site at Lyman HS in Longwood (FL) 

http://www.gate.net/~finkef