A few short hours after the conclusion of the SCIAC Multi-Duals meet held at La Mirada Park Saturday, Oct. 16, the Pomona-Pitzer harriers had dispersed.

For most students, Fall Break began on Friday—or even Thursday afternoon for the many among us more strongly inclined toward the humanities. The members of the cross country team, however, had a race to run—their most important one thus far and the first SCIAC meet of the year.

The results of the grueling eight-kilometer race would determine half the final league standings, and what’s more, the runners’ dispositions and demeanors as they headed off in myriad directions to enjoy the remaining three days of break.

By noon, one senior member of the team was driving himself to the Northern Sierras to catch up with a group of friends that had left Friday, a sophomore was slumbering peacefully in the passenger seat as his mother drove the two toward the sweeping views and immense granite rock faces of Yosemite, three freshmen were piled haphazardly in the back of a Washington-licensed motor vehicle to be driven as far north as Portland by two upperclassmen, and a senior made himself a few shots of espresso and sautéed Swiss chard for a late––and second––breakfast, an early afternoon nap imminent.

Before their trips could commence, though, the men sat exhaustedly next to one another on the 40-minute ride back to campus—neither elation nor dejection immediately evident, masked as they might have been by fatigue.

Their tiredness was, of course, an effect of each having completed, as quickly as possible, the entirety of the wet, at times quite muddy, and surreptitiously hilly course at La Mirada. They had raced the members of seven other SCIAC cross country teams, and they had raced hard.

Earlier, too, they had been packed into the vans for the drive to the course, and before that they had breakfasted, jogged, woken up early—too early—and still earlier, gone to bed perhaps too late, had eaten dinner, and made plans for which directions to head off in after all this was done.

The men’s race was set to go off at 8:30 a.m., and although the course’s grassy slopes were somewhat slippery and soft—footing not best suited for fast cross country times—the temperature was cool and the sky overcast. At 7:40, the runners began their warm up, their thoughts centered on the task at hand, chatting calmly about plans for the race, goals, slight changes in the course from previous years, the competition, etc..

Just before the race was set to start, the Sagehens were gathered tightly in Box One on the start line, standing and stretching and jumping and thinking, all nervousness and jitters and energy about to be expended, all promise and potential.

With the plume of smoke and the closely-following blast of a blank, the runners from all eight teams jumped off the line and sped straight ahead, approaching a short dip before heading up a small hill and turning gently right, as designated by the course.

One mile passed in a speedy 5:06 or so, and two runners, Eric Kleinsasser Oxy ’12 and a nameless and excitable Stag, had a slight lead over on the rest of the field. Near the front of this mass were a large group of CMS runners, four from P-PXC, and a smattering of athletes from La Verne, Cal Lu, Redlands, Occidental, and Whittier. Caltech was conspicuously absent.

By two miles, the leading CMS runner had dropped back into the pack, a new one, Brian Sutter CM ’13 had taken his place alongside Kleinsasser, and, eventually, both were reconnected to the larger group of runners. Coming through in 10:26, the front group had broken slightly from the rest of the race, narrowed down to 10 athletes, each hoping that his competitors would falter before he did.

As the group approached one of the course’s larger hills and the three-mile mark, two P-PXC harriers, Charlie Enscoe PO ’11 and Alex Johnson PZ ’13, edged to the lead. They surged slightly up the incline side by side—the picture of teamwork, determination, and dashingly good looks. Enscoe’s excitement pushed him into the lead, and he soon found himself, by no intention of his own, ahead of the next runner by 20 meters. Hard on his heels were Kleinsasser, Sutter, and Johnson.

Thrilled to be leading the race as he was, the TSL journalist realized quickly that he may have gone a bit too soon, and heading downhill toward the four-mile mark, he looked over his shoulder again to see his two rivals narrowing the gap to him step by step. He would, he thought painfully to himself, inevitably be caught. Sure enough, with 800 meters to go, the pair caught our beloved writer, although the pain and weariness was just as evident in their desperate searches for air as in the Sagehen’s.

The three young harriers crested the final hill amid cries of frantic encouragement. Exciting as the finishing stretch of such a close race always is, the men were so spent from the previous 4.85 miles that the three-second gaps—about 50 feet each—that had gradually emerged between each runner remained consistent, and the order as they crossed the line was, sadly, Sutter, Kleinsasser, Enscoe, in times of 26:29, 26:32, and 26:35—not stunningly fast, but impressive given the hills and poor footing.

Finishing in a strong fourth was Alex Johnson, making P-PXC the first team with two runners across the line. Following next, one by one, were runners from La Verne, Cal Lu, CMS, and Redlands. Paul Balmer PO ’12 flailed across the line in ninth—a superb run for the young ‘cock that gave the team the lead through their first three runners.

CMS’s depth, however, was too much for any of its opponents to match. Their runners finished 10th, 11th, and 12th, lifting the Stags over the rest of the competition and giving them a 7-0 record. P-P’s top five was rounded out by Hale Shaw PZ ’12 and Tristan Roberts PO ’11 in 15th and 24th, respectively.

Although the Sagehens lost to CMS, they easily prevailed over the remaining six teams and came out with a 6-1 record. And, just as importantly, their competitiveness against the Stags showed both a great deal of progress from the last meeting between the two teams as well as their ability to be competitive in the race for SCIAC glory.

And thus the harriers dispersed. Some packed light bags and headed north to some mountain or other, or a girlfriend’s, or simply to head north. Some drove west to get in some time at the beach while the weather was unfortunately gloomy and wet. Others sat in desk chairs in their garages, gazed at posters of distant views of the bay area, and reflected on the events that had just transpired, and the even-bigger race that would soon come.