2007 Stanford Invitational
California's 'money man' takes another one to the 'Bank;
Arizona's Bishton twins clearly perform without peer
Photo by Margaret Gallagher
Riverbank's German Fernandez
continued his torrid unbeaten string
with a commanding win at Stanford
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Photo by Rich Gonzalez
Mountain Ridge of Arizona's Nadya Bishton
and twin sister Nastia were nearly 30 seconds
in the clear of California girls in their lopsisded win. |
By Rich Gonzalez, Editor
PALO ALTO -- The identity of the 2007 FootLocker national champion? You can take it to the 'bank!
German Fernandez of Riverbank.
Or can you?
In the latest round of scintilating back-and-forth throwdowns against Utah's Luke Puskedra, Riverbank High of California's German Fernandez annihilated the best competition he faced in emerging as the runaway winner of the Seeded Boys Race at the Stanford Invitational on Saturday, besting Willow Glen's Mohamed Abdalla by 40 seconds to post the fastest time of the day in winning from here to Utah.
Fernandez remains unbeaten, continues unthreatened, proceeds untouched.
Seemingly, Utah's Luke Puskedra (from Judge Memorial HS) purrs along unfazed, continuing to set records elsewhere at the same mind-boggling clip.
Fernandez appeared content to keep with the leaders in the opening minutes here, with Buchanan's Jonathan Sanchez setting the early pace. But with a large fan turnout eliciting anticipation after seeing the Riverbank star smoke course records and beat chief race-day rivals by over 100 seconds already this year, he admitted to allowing himself get caught up in the moment.
"I thought the pace was too slow so then I picked it up, (but then the) first mile was 4:34. ... That's too fast. I wanted to go like 4:40, you know. After that, the atmosphere just took me."
And he took the race.
It was along the middle mile of the predominantly grassy 5,000-meter layout that Fernandez was spotted making a commanding surge on Abdalla (a 9:13 two-miler in track) while appearing as fresh as over, all this playing out across the very same blades of grass where the world's greatest golfer, Tiger Woods, continued his evolvement as a legend while enrolled at Stanford. |
Mid- to late-race reports had Fernandez along the golf course soaring like an eagle while others bogeyed by comparison. The gap kept growing. By the time he reached the finishing straight this time, however, it was clear he wanted this one badly.
Occasional grimaces swept across his face as the head tilted back and he searched for another gear.
At 14 minutes and 42 seconds, the gearbox had been throttled.
"I'm very happy, I pushed myself," said Fernandez, who recently has been logging 65-70 miles per week, shortly after the race. "My goal was to break 15 minutes."
As Fernandez coolly exited the long finish chute, the others were not in sight. Finally, a wave of outmanned pursuers emerged, with Abdalla able to hold off Rancho Buena Vista's Collin Jarvis for second, 15:22 to 15:23.
Abdalla's clocking was tied for second-best of the day along with Dublin's James Attarian, who had won the Division III race earlier in the meet.
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Photo by Rich Gonzalez
Riverbank's German Fernandez (#2839) is content to
let Buchanan's Jonathan Sanchez set the early pace.
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With the Half Moon Bay meet looming next weekend, Fernandez earlier admitted to another course record attempt there (Stanford has no official course record, by the way, with the pathways seemingly changing a bit from year to year), but the HMB layout has changed since last year due to course construction.
Also looming on the calendar is a possible in-season date with three storied hills at the Mt. SAC Invitational, but that remains tentative while the Riverbank coaching staff mulls such a hard, late effort before a hopeful string of meets that includes the Sac-Joaquin Section Finals (endlessly uneven course), the California state meet, the FootLocker West Regional (at very hilly Mt. SAC) and the FootLocker
Nationals (a hilly and honest Balboa Park).
Fernandez admitted he would love to challenge the Mt. SAC course a bit early, but only if it fits into the overall plan. There's bigger fosh to fry in the end. |
Photo by Rich Gonzalez
Fernandez finishes up his landslide 14:42 win. |
The girls individual battle was more of a friendly one... it has to be when it's between sisters, right?
Mountain Ridge of Arizona's Nadya Bishton hummed through the course in impressive fashion with twin sibling Nastia striding close behind. The Glendale-based pair were without peer in this one, taking apart a very fine field that included Davis' Laurynne Chetelat and Casa Grande's Jacque Taylor among others. Nadya won in 17:29 with Nastia only two seconds behind. No other girls broke 17:50 on this pleasurably warm day.
What were their race-day goals?
"Beat each other!" Nadya energetically beamed.
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While the girls admittedly were not in search of achieving any specific time goal, it quickly became clear that a quest for a good clocking would be totally a self-sufficient achievement as the leaders came out slowly, with Nastia admitting she was left surprised by the lack of challengers (2005 FootLocker champ Jordan Hasay and 2007 1600m state track champ Christine Babcock did not attend). She achieved her pre-race goal of a top-five finish without difficulty, perhaps the in-staters having too much respect or too little insight into a pair of diminutive gnomes sporting sunglasses and the locally unfamiliar "Ridge" splashed across their chest.
Mountain Ridge Coach Don Tate sent an alert by email early in the week that the girls were very fit and cominf for competition, but that might have to wait until FootLocker Regionals down the road, or even perhaps Nike Team Nationals if the duo can dominate once more and their teammates can shear an expansive time gap at the NTN Southwest Regional meet in mid-November. |
Photo by Rich Gonzalez
Crater on the start line prowl before Stanford win. |
On the topic of NTN, the usual blockbuster teamwide clashes commonly unleashed at Stanford failed to fully materialize this year, with five of the top six California Region boys teams not in attendance as well as usual out-of-state powers such as Mead of Washington.
Crater's boys of Oregon picked up their second major national win in as many weekends (having won the blockbuster Bob Firman meet in Idaho just days before), but by nearly the slimmest of margins. The group had to rely on superier depth at the 3-4-5 positions to barely offset the frontrunning exploits of San Diego-based Rancho Buena Vista in earning a thrilling 167-168 win.
Rancho Buena Vista, which at one point this year was tabbed as the #6 team in California pending the clearance of a key transfer, pretty much proved such excellence here after a close loss to many powers at Woodbridge.
Clovis East, ranked sixth in the California Region, was third among this weekend's attendees with 181 points and Buchanan was fourth with 184.
Look for a little bit of movement in the middle to bottom
positions in the upcoming California Region rankings.
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With very little separating teams 4 through 13 on the California depth chart -- only six of those were here -- it was interesting to see the matchups between the Oregon and California powers. Central Catholic of Portland, the #2 team in Oregon, was sixth here as the crew gapped a race-best 16 seconds in milling into the chute in impressive fashion. The only surprise on the boys side was from Clovis West, which ranked 16th in California on the depth chart but rose significantly here to beat ranked Petaluma and previously ranked Jesuit of Northern California. Yes, the "spin cycle" in the very deep California hierarchy continues. |
On the girls side, Jesuit of Portland took away top honors with a very fine 20-point win over a stunningly young Rancho Buena Vista crew and third-place Torrey Pines, with the latter two being San Diego area rivals. The Woodlands of Texas was a comfortable fourth with 195.
Even without a top frosh from track on its cross-country roster, Jesuit had no issues with depth as all scorers gapped within 65 seconds of their frontrunner, Noelle VanRysselberghe and sported the fastest 6th and 7th runners in the field, to boot. The top-rated team in the Northwest Region rankings, Jesuit further solidified that ranking here.
Rancho Buena Vista, a bubble team in recent weeks, easily put forth its best performance of the year thus far to defeat a Torrey Pines team it had previously lost to. RBV's sudden rise can be traced 14 to 15 years back, when most of the team members were born. An amazing five freshmen girls suited up
for the RBV varsity seven, whereas most other of the top girls squads on Saturday had two frosh or less in varsity action. A team of the future? More like a team of the current! |
 
Rancho Buena Vista boosted its stock at Stanford! |
Although Torrey Pines placed a very respectable third teamwise in the Girls Seeded Race, one of its top runners struggled a tad to be well away from scoring while another did not finish. A quick tracing of past results reveals TP could have been in great position to challenge Jesuit of Portland for the big sweepsstakes win had all of its cylinders clicked in sync.
But there's more chances for that down the road -- for Torrey Pines, Rancho Buena Vista and all the elite teams -- especially in postseason.
You can that that to the bank! |
Photo by Rich Gonzalez
Torrey Pines is all smiles after fine showing at Stanford. |
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