USA Cross Country Championships

A warm welcome from United States Track and Field to all athletes, media, sponsors and fans
of the USA Cross Country Championships – America’s premier Cross Country running
event. The 2011 USA Cross Country Championships will be contested on February 5,
2011in San Diego, California and these championships will be hosted by the San Diego-Imperial
Association of USA Track & Field. Participating athletes will be vying not only for national
championship titles in the junior, senior and master’s categories, but also for positions on the US
team that will compete at the 2011 IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Punta Umbra,
Spain. Preceding this great competition will be a community race in which local runners will have
the opportunity to compete on the same course as the Championship race.
The attention of this nation will be focused on San Diego as our top American distance runners test
their potential for National glory. A new generation of heroes and heroines will arise in preparation
for the 2011 World Championships. To witness their achievements at this year’s National Cross
Country championships reminds us that it takes each and every one of us to help make their
dreams come true. San Diego can be proud of its contribution to USA Cross Country and it is this
outstanding effort and support that brings America’s best distance athletes closer to their dreams.
We also salute the many people who have given so generously of their time, talents and material
resources to make this prestigious event a success. On behalf of San Diego-Imperial Association of
USA Track & Field we salute you and send very best wishes for very memorable championships
in San Diego.
Sincerely,
Paul Greer and Thom Hunt
2011 USA Cross Country Championships Event Directors
Welcome Coat Publications photos
Jordan Hasay (1026) wins 2008 Jr. Women’s 6K as fans pack course.
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Saturday, February 5, 2011
9:00 a.m. Road Runner Sports Community 4 km
9:45 Masters Women’s 8 km
10:45 Masters Men’s 8 km
11:45 Junior Women’s 6 km
12:30 p.m. Junior Men’s 8 km
1:15 Open Women’s 8 km
2:00 Open Men’s 12 km
Mission Bay
Tecolote Shores
By Paul Merca, USATF
Olympic bronze medalist in 2008 and American record
holder in the 10,000 meter run, Shalane Flanagan of Portland, Oregon, headlines the field for this year’s USA Cross Country Championships at Mission
Bay Park in San Diego.
Flanagan, who won two USA cross country titles over the now-discontinued 4k race, along with championships in 2008 here and in Spokane last year, will shoot for her third national 8k title Saturday.
Flanagan, whose 12th place finish at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships last year in Bydgoszcz, Poland led Team USA to a third place team finish and a spot on the podium, will face Emily Brown of Minneapolis, the 2009 USA cross country champion;
Molly Huddle from Providence,
Rhode Island, the newly minted American record holder in the 5000m (14:44.76 in Brussels on August 27); Magdalena Lewy Boulet of Oakland, the number 1 ranked US marathoner, according
to Track & Field News; and, Boulder’s Renee Metivier Baillie.
Brown, Huddle, and Metivier Baillie were key factors in Team USA’s successful climb to a podium
finish last year.
Add to the mix Kara Goucher, the bronze medalist in the 10000m at the 2007 world track & field championships
in Osaka, who is coming back to big-time competition after giving birth in September.
In addition, 2008 Olympian in the marathon Blake Russell from Pacific Grove, CA., and five-time
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Flanagan returns for another run at greatness
USA cross country team member Kathy Newberry from Ann Arbor, MI. are threats to earn one of the six spots on the plane to Punta Umbria,
Spain for next month’s world cross country championships.
Newcomers to watch include former Iowa State standout Lisa Koll from Portland, who won both the 5000 and 10000 meter runs at the NCAA track & field championships
last spring, and was a finalist for the 2010 Bowerman Award, college track & field’s equivalent of the Heisman Trophy;
and Meghan Armstrong of Minneapolis, a former All-American
from the University of Iowa.
In the women’s junior race, all eyes will squarely be on Cornwall Central High (Cornwall-on-Hudson,
NY) senior Aisling Cuffe, who returns to San Diego two months after destroying the field at the Foot Locker National Cross Country Championships at Balboa Park.
At the fabled Balboa Park course, Cuffe, who plans to attend
Stanford University this fall, clocked the sixth fastest time, running
16:52 for the 5k distance.
The University of Washington’s Katie Flood, who won the 2009 Nike Cross Nationals race and was the Pac-10 cross country newcomer
of the year in 2010, will perhaps be Cuffe’s main challenger.
Among Cuffe’s chief competitors
include Syracuse University freshmen Julie Jablonski from Pennington, New Jersey, and Ashley
Smolinka from Hillsborough, NJ; and UCLA freshmen Amber Murukami and Caitlin Schmitt. University of Washington freshmen
Chelsea Orr, Mackenzie Carter, and Liberty Miller will also be in the mix.
Coat Publications photos
Watch for Aisling Cuffe in junior race (left), Shalane Flanagan in Open.
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By Paul Merca, USATF
The men’s race at the 2011 USA Track & Field Cross Country National Championships
may be one of the most wide open races in recent memory, as there are no clear cut favorites.
Three-time U.S. Olympian Abdi Abdirahman from Tuscon returns to the cross country wars after last running in the national championships in 2004 in Indianapolis.
Also entered is the runner-
up in the 2008 Championship here, Olympian Jorge Torres of Boulder.
Abdirahman, known affectionately
to running fans as the “Black Cactus,” was part of the USA men’s squad that last finished
on the podium ten years ago in Oostende, Belgium.
Meanwhile, Torres will be hoping to move up one spot from his runner-
up finish here in 2008 to Dathan Ritzenhein. Torres used his 35:29 in the Open Men’s 12K in 2008 to spark him to an Olympic berth in the 10,000 meters at Beijing.
They will be challenged for spots in the top six that earn a trip to Punta Umbria, Spain by past national
team members Scott Bauhs and Jonathan Pierce of Mammoth Lakes, California; Ryan Vail of Stillwater, Oklahoma; Jason Hartmann
of Boulder; Bobby Mack from Raleigh, North Carolina; and, Ed Moran of Williamsburg, Virginia, who was second in the 10000 at last year’s USA championships
in Des Moines, Iowa.
Others to watch include Brian Olinger of Columbus, Ohio, one of America’s top steeplechasers,
Men’s race shapes up as wide-open scramble
and Georgetown graduate Andrew
Bumbalough, who competed for Team USA at the 2006 IAAF Cross Country Championships in the junior 8k race. Bumbalough finished third in last year’s USA Championships in Des Moines in the 5000 meter run.
Ammar Moussa of Arcadia High School is perhaps the one to watch in the men’s junior 8k race. Recently named the Gatorade High School cross country runner of the year in California, Moussa led his school to the Nike Cross Nationals
title in December, and won his second USA Junior Olympics national
cross country title.
Moussa is aiming for his second
straight USA junior team, as he finished sixth in Spokane last year, running 24:28. Moussa finished
66th in the 2010 junior world championships, running 25:00.
Among Moussa’s key competitors
are high school senior Craig Lutz of Marcus HS in Flower Mound, Texas. Lutz won the 2009 Nike Cross Nationals individual race, and finished third in December,
one spot ahead of Moussa.
Athletes from NCAA champion Oklahoma State University, Syracuse
University, and North Carolina
State may play key roles in who gets the spots to Punta Umbria for the world championships in March and the NACAC championships in Tobago in two weeks, as those schools have successfully placed runners on the junior national team in recent years.
Three-time U.S. Olympian Abdi Abdirahman (No. 12 at left) heads the Men’s Open race. The Juniors feature a talented field that includes Ammar Moussa (below) of Arcadia High, the California cross country runner of the year.
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A special thank you to our sponsors
The companies and organizations listed below on this page and the next have stepped up to help make the USA Track & Field’s 2011 USA Cross Country National Championships a reality in San Diego. We thank them for their interest in promoting worthwhile events in San Diego, and for their support of cross country and track/field in the San Diego area. Please support our sponsors.
Gold sponsors
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A special thank you to our sponsors (continued)
Silver sponsors
Integrits Corporation (IntegrITS), with its home office in San Diego, California, is a Veteran owned company and certified by the Small Business Administration as a Small Disadvantaged Business. Since its inception in January 2000, IntegrITS continues to successfully implement its comprehensive customer solutions for both Department of Defense and commercial markets, establishing a brand of service that is synonymous with trust, objectivity, reliability, and superior quality performance. IntegrITS provides a variety of engineering and Information Technology services to a broad range of Department of Defense and commercial clients, specializing in Program Management, System Design and Development, System Implementation/Installation, Independent Verification and Validation, Test and Evaluation, Information Assurance, Computer Network Operations, and IT management and maintenance. Details at: www.integrits.com.
Bronze sponsors
Road Runner Sports is the World’s Largest Running Store. Shop online for running
shoes, clothes and accessories from Adidas, Nike, New Balance, Asics, and more leading brands. Details at: www.roadrunnersports.com.
Running Warehouse is the premier online running shop. Details at: www.runningwarehouse.com.
The San Diego Track Club, the largest running club in the county, has a mission to support the development of distance running, track and field, and related sports in San Diego County. These goals are accomplished in the following ways:
* Staging road races, track meets and social events
* Sponsoring teams and athletes
* Providing free coaching for its members
* Offering consulting services
* Publishing the “San Diego Running” magazine
Details at: www.sdtc.com.
The Shirley’s are lifelong residents of San Diego and have been supportive of the USATF, San Diego Track Club, and the running community for the past 30 years.
Graeme and Joni Shirley
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Behind every great runner is a great coach. And San Diego is fortunate to have some of the best coaches in the world here for the 2011 Coaches Forum and the USA Track & Field’s 2011 USA Cross Country National Championships.
Presented by Infinite Running on Friday, Feb. 4, 2011 at 6 p.m. at the Hilton San Diego Resort & Spa, the 2011 Coaches Forum brought together
several noted coaches who have played major roles in re-establishing the U.S. as a distance running power. Featured coaches included:
Bob Larsen - The legendary UCLA coach who lead the Bruins to 2 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field titles. He was four-time NCAA Coach of the Year (track and field - 1987-88-95; cross country - 1980). Currently, he is coaching the 2009 New York City Marathon Champion
Meb Keflezighi.
Terrence Mahon - A former Villanova stand-out, Terrence Mahon
is currently one of the coaches for the highly successful Mammoth Track Club. He has coached many top American athletes including his wife, Jen Rhines. Mahon’s coaching
style is continually influenced
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by many top coaches including Joe Vigil, Bob Larsen, Matt Centrowitz and Bill Dellinger. He is regarded as one of the top coaches of elite runners in the United States.
Darren De Reuck – De Reuck brings over 20 years of coaching experience to this forum. He currently
holds USATF Level 1 and 2 coaching certifications and is the coach for the Running Republic of Boulder. De Reuck coaches his wife, multi-champion Colleen De Reuck, and was recently nominated to serve on the USATF Women’s National LDR Committee.
Dave Murray - Dave graduated
from Arizona in 1965 and then began his coaching career in 1967 with the Wildcats that spanned an amazing 35 years. In 1984 he was named the NCAA Cross Country Coach of the Year. He was also named the PAC 10 Cross Country Coach of the Year an impressive 7 times and was inducted into the US Track and Field/Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2009. Murray has been honored by being nominated as a member of the prestigious University of Arizona
Hall of Fame in 2009. “Coach” has guided many outstanding distance
runners including San Diegans
Ed Mendoza, Terry Cotton, Thom Hunt and Marc Davis.
Dixon Farmer (MC) - Former NCAA 440 hurdles champion and Southern California coaching legend
Dixon Farmer emceed the forum.
Farmer was a top level coach and Athletic Director at Occidental
College and brings decades of coaching experience to this panel.
Infinite Running Coaches Forum
Behind every great runner is a great coach
From left: Bob Larsen, Terrence Mahon, Darren De Reuck, and Dave Murray, with Dixon Farmer (below).
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An Olympic year. Two dominating and deserving Open champions. Seven races under the bright blue San Diego sky at beautiful Mission Bay. A spirited crowd in the thousands cheering every step.
Those were among the sights and memories of the 2008 USA Cross Country Championships. Reprised on the same Mission Bay course three years later, the 2011 Championships
will feature many of the same ingredients, including one of the 2008 champions who could well repeat her victory,
but will be hard-pressed to duplicate her dominance.
Shalane Flanagan didn’t just win the 2008 Open Women’s
8K. She all but turned it into two races. Flanagan raced home unchallenged in 25:26. The next runner did not finish until 70 seconds later. It was a sign of things to come for Flanagan, who would go on to win the 10,000-meter bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
For the men, Dathan Ritzenhein was almost as impressive.
He won the 12K in 35:03, some 26 seconds ahead ahead of runner-up Jorge Torres. Then, both he and heralded
countryman Ryan Hall, who finished fifth here, would go on to top 10 performances in the heat of the 2008 Olympic Men’s Marathon in Beijing.
This year’s races will serve as the trials race to select the Team USA squad for the 2011 IAAF World Cross Country
Championships in Punta Umbria, Spain on March 20. It also will qualify teams for the North America, Central American, & Caribbean (NACAC) Cross Country Championships,
in Tobago on February 19. And, coming a year before 2012, it will serve as an early sign of possible American contenders at the London Olympics.
Photos by Coat Publications
Ryan Hall, left, was fifth behind Dathan Ritzenhein, right, here in 2008.
Reflections
of 2008
After breaking away
from Katie McGregor, Shalane
Flanagan (right) cruised. Above, Renee Metivier (58) holds off Emily Brown and McGregor for 2nd.
Photos by Bob Betancourt
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Stretching back to 1890, when William Day became its first title holder, the USA Cross Country Championship
is steeped in history.
A Who’s Who of America’s top long-distance runners have had tangible connections to the event. Many have joined Day as title holders.
Whose turn is it to make history this year?
That answer will come on the grassy course of Mission Bay. But, the Championship held in San Diego in 1971 provides a stark recounting of a race in which legends were just runners, with the same concerns of today’s entrants. Here, in excerpts from Sports Illustrated and the San Diego Track Club newsletter, is a look at history in the making:
The Long And The Shorter Of It - By Gwilym S. Brown, Dec. 6, 1971, Sports Illustrated:
The surprising size of the starting field may explain why at last week’s meet near San Diego a strong pre-race favorite, Ken Moore, a former champion and a seasoned performer who runs for the Oregon Track Club, lost his head and finished sixth while Frank Shorter, the defending champion, kept his and romped to victory by 150 yards.
The organizers, however, were concerned when the entries began to pile in. “It became sort of an odyssey to find a suitable
course,” says Ken Bernard, the manager of a reinforcing-
steel firm and president of the San Diego Track Club.
What they finally got was a trail pounded into the dirt on a plateau in the hills north of town—a barren stretch of gray-brown wilderness virtually unmarked by a bush, a tree or even a refreshing green blade of grass. The loop ... started as a pie-shaped segment that funneled down after 285 yards to a throat 40 feet wide and a dirt path.
On the curved starting line the Oregon Track Club had been placed in almost the exact center. At the starter’s signal
Moore moved away smoothly, but after about 60 yards he suddenly became aware that the runners to the left of him and the runners to the right of him were surging ahead and closing down toward the narrow entrance to the trail proper, which loomed like the jaws of a hungry alligator. Alarmed at the prospect of being swallowed while Shorter pulled blithely away out front, Moore spurted.
“I shot up with the leaders much too soon and when I heard a mile time of 4:20 I was appalled at how fast we’d been going,” said Moore. “Losing was my own damned fault. I disintegrated in the last three miles and finished up full of lactic acid, feeling bilious and horrible, hitting and kicking myself for running such a stupid race while Frank was being so smart.”
Said Shorter: “I was in about 100th place after 200 yards, but then everyone proved to be very nice. As I moved up through the crowd I’d say, ‘Excuse me, can I get by?’ and everyone would move over.”
(It no doubt helped that Shorter had won in 1970, the first of his four straight U.S. cross county titles, and was poised for his run to greatness at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
Shorter won easily, with Moore sixth and Jim Ryun dropping out in a race loaded with “big” names.)
San Diego Track Club Newsletter, Dec. 1971. Tom Bache editor:
The largest field in the long history of this meet could also make a strong claim to be the best field, as top names could be found down to 100th place and beyond. The course was fast and the times showed it, with the first 35-40 runners
averaging under 5 minutes per mile (corrected).
Bill Gookin, 39 and soon to be the scourge of veteran competition, ran one of the best races of his life to finish 105th. ... The SDTC team placed 8th in what was certainly
the most hotly contested team battle ever in this meet.
Any doubt the national track community may have about SDTC’s abililty to stage a major event should have been dispelled by this remarkably successful cross country
championship.
Whose turn will it be to make history at the Championship?
Here’s a look at history in the making in San Diego in 1971
Tarry Harrison (343) is about to be “excused” by Frank Shorter (2nd) as Ken Moore (4th) fades to sixth.
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Greetings!
On behalf of USA Track & Field, I would like to welcome you to the
2011 USA Cross Country Championships and World Cross Country
Championship Trials at San Diego’s beautiful Mission Bay Park!
The USA Cross Country Championships features America’s top Har-
riers vying for the title of U.S. National Champion in the Junior (Un-
der-20), Open, and Masters (40-and-over) categories. Additionally,
the top finishers in the junior and senior races will earn the right to
represent Team USA at both the February 19 North America, Central
America, and Caribbean Cross Country Championship in Trinidad and
the March 20 IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Punta
Umbria, Spain.
USA Track & Field is excited to return to San Diego for the 2011 edi-
tion of our national championships; just three years ago in 2008, the
San Diego - Imperial Association of USATF produced a suburb edition
of this same event that featured record-breaking participant numbers.
In closing, I would like to wish my best to all of our competitors this
weekend.
Best Regards,
Michael Scott
Chair, USATF Cross Country Council
2010 Dathan Ritzenhein
2009 Meb Keflezighi
2008 Dathan Ritzenhein
2007 Alan Culpepper
2006 Ryan Hall
2005 Dathan Ritzenhein
2004 Bob Kennedy
2003 Alan Culpepper
2002 Meb Keflezighi
2001 Meb Keflezighi
2000 Adam Goucher
1999 Alan Culpepper
1998 Dan Browne (short course)
1997 Tim Hacker
1996 Reuben Reina
1995 Brad Schlapak
1994 Reuben Reina
1993 Todd Williams
1992 Bob Kennedy
1991 Todd Williams
1990 Bob Kempainen
1989 Pat Porter
1988 Pat Porter
2010 Shalane Flanagan
2009 Emily Brown
2008 Shalane Flanagan
2007 Deena Kastor
2006 Blake Russell
2005 Colleen De Reuck
2004 Colleen De Reuck
2003 Deena Drossin
2002 Deena Drossin
2001 Deena Drossin
2000 Deena Drossin
1999 Deena Drossin
1998 Amy Rudolph (short)
1997 Deena Drossin
1996 Lynn Jennings
1995 Joan Nesbit
1994 Olga Appell
1993 Lynn Jennings
1992 Lynn Jennings
1991 Lynn Jennings
1990 Lynn Jennings
1989 Lynn Jennings
1988 Lynn Jennings
Photo by Bobby Betancourt
German Fernandez wins the Junior Men’s title in 2008.
Recent winners:
USA Cross Country
Championships
Bill Aaron
Kristen Auten
Tom Bache
Lolitia Bache
Manny Bautista
Jay Beltz
Bobby Betancourt
Tonie Campbell
Jim Cerveny
Tom Coat
Rich Cota
Joe Crosswhite
Christian Deleon
Jerry Downey
Kylie Edwards
Dixon Farmer
Milena Glusac
Dan Geiger
Paul Greer
Thom Hunt
Dave Hutchinson
Don Janecki
Jody LaSalle
Mark Leisinger
Gary MacDonald
Jim McCarthy
Nancy Morris
Dave Murray
Andrew Myette
Toni Reavis
Renee Ross
Graeme Shirley
Joni Shirley
Jim Skelly
Ken Stone
Tracy Sundlun
Tom Sweet
Patrick Thiss
George Tubon
Patti Tuffley
Special thanks to the
Hall of Champions
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Thank you to the Championship’s core committee in San Diego
Above: Gary McDonald, Paul Merca, Jim Cerveny, Manny Bautista, and Paul Greer at the 2008 races. At right, Dathan Ritzenhein wins in front of a throng of media, helped this year by Paul Merca, Jim Estes, Tom Coat and Ken Stone. Below, Tracy Sundlun (left), Dixon Farmer are again part of the announcing team.