By Joe Hartman, for DyeStatCal.com

Stephany Uriostegui
      One big surprise of the week in the SJS was the emergence of Stephany Uriostegui, a sophomore at Atwater High School. Sure, Stephany displayed a hefty dose of talent during her freshman year posting a 11:24 3200 PR in track and 17th at SJS section finals in cross country. But on Saturday, in a quality field at the Lagoon Valley Invitational, she was second only to D1 section champion Laurynne Chetelat with a time of 19:03. These days there are very few girls in the SJS waiting at the finish line to greet Deborah Maier - coming back from injury or not - but there was Stephany arriving one runner ahead.
      Overall, Stephany is very new to the sport and really athletics in general. She only played soccer in 7th and 8th grade and was brave enough to try out for the water polo team at Atwater without ever having played before. But she saw the cross country team running one day and figured it would be much smarter to grab a towel and dry off. "At first I didn't like (running), but now I just love it so much."
      A self-admitted DyeStatCal junkie, Stephany has taken to cross country so much she designed her own mini-course. "She has a home in Winton", reports coach Ken Rhoades, "and she'll put in 80-90 minutes just in her yard at night because it's over 100 degrees in the Central Valley." She does one 600 meter loop around her house, and then another, then another… Says Rhoades, "She's very coachable...always looking for something extra. If anything I have to reign her in and ask her to back off a little bit We knew she had the potential to do what she did today because she didn't do anything the summer before freshman year, but she's had a lot of 50-60 mile weeks the last few months. She's a great student of the game and knows Maier and all the Davis girls."
      Stephany already has new and updated goals for 2007: 'My goal at Stanford is to break 18 and get top five or top ten." It appears the only thing tougher than catching Stephany in a race is pronouncing her name correctly. It's "UREO - STUH - GI". Got that Keith Conning? You're going to need it at Stanford, my friend.


Chris Haworth
      At last year's D1 section finals, only two of the top eight runners were not from Davis Senior High School. One of them was Chris Haworth, now a junior at Kennedy High School. Chris broke 17 minutes at the unforgiving section course and will go down in the books as the fastest sophomore in the section in 2006, barely edging Garrett Seawell of Woodcreek for that honor. Chris ran 16:16 at the state meet and is looking for another crack. For track, Chris was 2nd in the 1600m at the Division 1 section finals with a time of 4:25.
     His coach Tim Miller knows he's got something in Chris, but resists any satisfaction of where they are at describing Chris as "almost a coaches dream". Says Miller, "He constantly wants to improve. I actually have to hold him back, a little, so he doesn't run himself into the ground. But he can be quite stubborn at times", referring to Chris' habit of occasionally adapting on-line workouts to his training plan.
     "I could have worse problems," Miller concedes. "His strengths are, he has very little fear, he doesn't know he wasn't suppose to beat that runner or run that time. On the other hand it can of course hurt him at times. He does not like coming down or being forced to come down to earth sometimes." Sounds like a normal kid to us. But one whose excellent potential and ambition doesn't seem normal at all.

Joe Hartman/DyeStatCal: What is the main reason you run competitively?
Stephany: I run because its fun and you meet new people and see new places.
Chris: For the adrenaline rush in the first 100m-200m of the race.

Joe Hartman/DyeStatCal: Of all your high school races, which one was most memorable?
Stephany: A track invitational at Stanislaus State my freshman year. On the last lap of the 3200 I shouted "I love you guys" to my teammates and almost fell into the infield.
Chris: Last year at sections when my teammate Rafael and I made it to state championships.

Joe Hartman/DyeStatCal: What's the best advice you have for someone new to your team?
Stephany: You never know what your body is capable of until you try it.
Chris: If you come to practice, you'll become a better runner.

Joe Hartman/DyeStatCal: Which meet(s) are you looking forward to the most this year?
Stephany: I'm looking forward to Stanford and Mt. SAC.
Chris: The Stanford invitational, The Mt.SAC Invitational, and The Clovis Invitational.

Joe Hartman/DyeStatCal: What's your current favorite pre-race warm-up song?
Stephany: My favorite pre-race song is "Stand in the Rain" by Superchick
Chris: "Down with the Sickness" by Disturbed

Joe Hartman/DyeStatCal: What's your favorite food when the coach isn't looking?
Stephany: Skittles
Chris: I'd have to say vanilla ice cream.

Joe Hartman/DyeStatCal: What's the place outside of California you would most like to visit.
Stephany: I would love to visit Eugene, Oregon.
Chris: Italy.

Joe Hartman/DyeStatCal: The one thing that would surprise us the most about Stephany Uriostegui is….
Stephany: I'm a PK (pastor's kid); my dad oversees three churches and is the pastor of two of them.

Joe Hartman/DyeStatCal: The one thing that would surprise us the most about Chris Haworth is….
Chris: I don't eat alot of junk food.

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