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1996 Foot Locker National Cross Country - Boys
Article by Doug Speck
"Exciting Races Mark Foot Locker National Competition"
San Diego's Morley Field portion of Balboa Park
Saturday, December 14, 1996.
After the Girls race it would be tough for the Boys race to create much excitement, but it did happen, with a large group setting up another great finish! Regional winners came in for this competition in interesting style, with a good race seemingly assured off of the experience and successes out of the different areas.
Sharif Karie from Virginia, kicked down by Abdul Alzindani of Michigan last year at the finish, had a great series of runs during the Fall, with an appearingly controlled 20 meter Southern Regional win.
Jonathan Riley from Massachusetts, a 4:10 miler, took interesting Boston area eleventh grader, Somalian (as is Karie) native, Abdirizak (say it ab-deer-ee-zik) Muhamud, in the Northeast race at Van Cortlandt Park by three seconds.
Ryan Andrus from Utah was undefeated from out West, looking controlled at the end of a comfortable Regional win.
Gabe Jennings, a powerful tall runner, the early leader in this Nationals race, was a seven second Midwest area winner.
A huge pack was together through the first half-mile of the Boys' contest, with a 2:15 clocking at that point. Western Regional runner-up, Rhy Reynolds from Oregon, handled the pace- setting as the field snaked down through the lower picnic loop to the mile point, reached in 4:52, the most leisurely early pace in the fourteen consecutive contests that have been held on this facility since 1983.
Up and over the big hill loop the first time did not sort much out, with two or three from each of the nation's four areas within an arm's length of the lead during the second mile, covered in just over five minutes (two miles 9:55). From the Northeast Muhamud and Christopher Dugan, South--Karie and Eric Kweder, Midwest--Mark Thompson, Jesse Barnes, and soph Jorge Torres, and Westerners Andrus and Michael Kasahun rolled along in a huge pack during the second mile, no one seemingly interested in a race-breaking move during that segment.
Interestingly, Michael Kasahun, seventh in the Western Regional from Fresno High, who works for Reuben Reina's brother Roland at a local Wal-Mart, and had the benefit of Reuben's counsel on how to run the course, made the first move, breaking away at two and a quarter miles as the field headed down through the flat "picnic loop." Sharif Karie and Ryan Andrus were quickest in attempting to cover Kasahun's spurts during the next quarter mile.
At the base of the last big hill loop at two and a half miles Abdeerizak Muhamud burst forth from the following pack, with the very thin (5'11" 127 pound) Somalian native effortlessly gliding past the leaders to move to the front during the steep ascent. Ryan Andrus moved up to challenge Mohamud during the run across the crest of the hill, with the undefeated Utah star leading as the contest headed through the steep downhill segment some six hundred meters from the finish.
During a gradual uphill portion of the course back to the starting line area Muhamud battled back to challenge Andrus, with Sharif Karie also building for a strong finish. Muhamud took the lead with some 200 meters to go before he crossed the starting line area, with Andrus and Karie still close enough to make the outcome far from a "done deal."
Down the stretch it was the two Somalian natives battling, with Mohamud, a 1:55 800m runner last spring (Karie has run 1:52), seeming at close to sub-60 second 400 meter pace during the final 150 meter dash into the tape, a pace and distance that Karie could not close down on. Mohamud won at 15:21.0, wth Karie 15:23.6, and Andrus next at 15:30.2.
Mohamud is an amazing story, in the country two years, a very soft spoken lad who was not even on the Boston English High School Cross-Country team at the start of the season. Coach Tony La Rocha had to talk his charge into joining the team part-way through the fall campaign, with Northeastern followers touting him as a pre-race "dark-horse" who was definitely "under-raced" during the season.
After the race the soft-spoken eleventh grader stated that his pre-race goals centered around not a win but a high placing, with no specifics other than trying to be with the lead pack as the contest developed.
The burst up the final hill that put him in the lead and frictionless ease with which he burst down the final stretch during the sprint brought to mind the African Olympic level stars who somehow seem to be blessed with no gravity on their portion of the running course. Abdirizak is the first eleventh grader ever to win in the eighteen years of the series.
It was a very exciting day for the sport, with Foot Locker, Adidas, Novus, American Track & Field Magazine, and the other sponsors deserving the usual world of credit for making Cross- Country the only prep sport with a true national championship. As is often said when good teen-age athletes get together: "The kids never let you down on the course." This was one of those days!
by Doug Speck, [email protected]
Posted to coach-net by:
Fred Finke
Lyman High School
Orlando, Florida, USA
[email protected]
[email protected]
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