Sports Writer

Joseph Koch

This past Saturday, the Pomona-Pitzer Men’s and Women’s Cross-Country teams travelled all the way to Palo Alto for the Stanford Invitational. The Sagehen runners had to wake up early, catch a plane from Ontario to San Francisco, drive south to the Stanford campus, complete a race, grab a quick bite to eat, and return to Pomona in one day. That is quite a lot of trouble to go through just to run an eight kilometer race, as the men did, or a five-k, which the women ran. But it was well worth the trip, as the Hens ran particularly well up north.

The women finished 16th out of 32 teams, which ranked them first among Division III schools. The mens team ran 15th out of 25 teams and placed an individual, Adam Boardman ’01, in the top five. Boardman finished fourth in the race, in which exactly 200 runners competed, in a personal-best time of 25:57. Another Sagehen competitor, Anastasia Finnegan ’00, ran a personal record time of 19:07 in the womens race to finish 32nd. She was a mere two places behind teammate Leah Barnes ’00, who finished in 19:03.

Joseph Koch

When asked about his race, Boardman replied that the competition forced him to work "very hard," but that he felt really strong for the last two miles. He went out fast (his first mile was sub-5:00) and kept his pace. He said that he was surprised to learn from coach Pat Mulcahy, who was stationed at the two-mile mark, that he was in ninth place at that point in the race. "It was then that I made up my mind to go for it," said Boardman. At about the fourth mile, on a steep stretch of hill, "it came time to push it. I tapped the reserve tank, and much to my delight it was full. I made a move into fourth, and held on ’til the finish," he continued.

The other Hen men ran well in support of Boardman. Freshmen Paul Miser ’03 ran a personal collegiate 8k best to finish in 52nd place with a time of 27:19. Not far behind was John Singleton ’01, who came in 63rd and ran 27:27. The other Hens at the meet were Mike Rostkowski ’02, who finished in 140th place by running 29:14, Paul Snape ’02, who ran 29:43 to finish 154th, and Adam Rick ’02, who clocked 31:22 to capture 181st.

Rounding out the women’s side were Catherine Brown ’00 (122nd, 20:35), Andrea Clemons ’02 (124, 20:38), Sheila Ormond ’02 (155, 21:05), and Vanessa Kettner ’02 (180, 21:36).

Joseph Koch