The Cardinal women's freshman class (l. to r.): Nevada Mareno, Julia Heymach, Jordan Oakes, Jessica Lawson, Kaitlin Ryan.
STANFORD, Calif. – The Stanford men's and women's cross-country teams head to a San Diego training camp in preparation for a promising season.
On Saturday, the team leaves for a week-long training camp in San Diego. This is a departure from recent years when the Cardinal trained at altitude at Mammoth Lakes.
The San Diego area was a training ground for Chris Miltenberg, Stanford's Franklin P. Johnson Director of Track and Field, for a stretch as a professional runner. Also, Stanford redshirt junior Steven Fahy, a native of the north San Diego County beachside town of Carlsbad, returns to his home region only a week after returning to campus.
The Cardinal will stay in La Jolla and train in a variety of places, including trails in the canyons of Rancho Penasquitos and around the UC San Diego campus. The trip culminates with a season-opening race at the University of San Diego Invitational at Mission Bay on Saturday, Sept. 16, at 8 a.m.
On Friday, the completed their first tempo run on the trails at Baylands Nature Preserve in Palo Alto on Friday and looked strong. The teams reported Sunday and have been in training since Tuesday. Baylands, with miles of wide flat dirt trails along the marshlands lining the San Francisco Bay, is a staple for off-campus speedwork.
In the USTFCCCA rankings, the Stanford men are No. 2 and the women are No. 5, matching their NCAA finishes of last year. Stanford was the only program to have both teams among the top eight at nationals last year.
The San Diego trip should launch memorable season for both Cardinal teams.
The men's squad loses Sean McGorty and Garrett Sweatt to graduation. Both were stalwerts on teams that finished among the top three at NCAA's in each of the past three years. However, the Cardinal returns Grant Fisher, the reigning NCAA outdoor 5,000-meter champ who was fifth in NCAA cross country last year. Sam Wharton also is a cross country All-American and Jack Keelan is a sub-4 miler and a two-time indoor track and field All-American.
Fahy, a steeplechaser on the track, also returns among last year's NCAA scorers and the team's younger runners appear ready to step into vital roles. Thomas Ratcliffe is coming off an eighth-place Pac-12 finish and was the 2016 Pac-12 Freshman of the Year. Alex Ostberg, a redshirt sophomore, ran his first sub-14 5,000 in June. Blair Hurlock, Will Lauer, and redshirt freshman Alek Parsons will contend for NCAA lineup spots.
The frosh men's cross country class consists of Callum Bolger, Connor Lane, D.J. Principe, and Michael Vernau, with Brandon McGorty training with the team but focusing on the 800 next spring. Bolger clocked 8:45.10 in the 3,200 while at San Luis Obispo, Lane was the Penn Relays high school 3,000 winner from Cardinal Gibbons in Raleigh, N.C., Principe ran the nation's fastest 3,000 (8:16.60) and was a 4:00.73 miler at La Salle Academy in Providence, R.I.,, and Vernau was the nation's No. 4 prep two-miler (8:49.36) while at Davis Senior High.
Miltenberg typically redshirts freshmen, but there have been several true freshmen in recent who have made immediate impacts, such as Sean McGorty, Fisher, and Ratcliffe.
The women's team features five cross country All-Americans -- fifth-year senior Vanessa Fraser, senior transfer Courtney Smith, redshirt junior Elise Cranny, and sophomores Fiona O'Keeffe and Christina Aragon. Four have broken 15:50 in the 5,000 – Fraser (15:25.48), Smith (15:46.44), O'Keeffe (15:46.93), and Cranny (15:49.27).
Fraser, the seventh-place finisher at the U.S. Championships 5,000 final, was the 13th fastest American, including pros, in 2017. On that list, she was the second-fastest returning collegian, behind only defending NCAA cross country champ Karissa Schweizer of Missouri.
Redshirt junior Elise Cranny is an eight-time All-American with a Pac-12 cross country runner-up finish, as well as two NCAA individual track second-places, to her credit. They join Smith, a senior in cross country eligibility, as elder statesmen to a squad that had three freshmen score at last year's NCAA Championships. Two of them – O'Keeffe and Aragon – were All-Americans in cross country with NCAA outdoor track top-7 finishers.
Smith was the Ivy League champ and 35th at the NCAA cross country meet last year while at Harvard. This was after clocking 32:08.32 on the track in the 10,000 at the 2016 Stanford Invitational. The time ranks No. 10 on the all-time Division I performers' list for a collegiate race.
A strong recruiting class and sophomore Ella Donaghue, a team scorer last year, create a flexible team with great depth. Among the team's veterans are NCAA cross-country meet veterans Abbie McNulty and Julia Maxwell, as well as NCAA Prelims 1,500 qualifier Catherine Pagano, and sophomore Hannah DeBalsi, a member of the Cardinal's West Region championship lineup.
The freshmen class is regarded as the best in the country:
Julia Heymach (Lamar HS, Houston) is the Texas 6A record-holder in the 1,600 (4:40.97); Jessica Lawson (Corning-Painted Post HS, N.Y.) won the 2017 New Balance Outdoor Nationals 5,000; Nevada Mareno (Leesville Road HS, Raleigh, N.C.) was a two-time top-three finisher at the Foot Locker cross country nationals; Jordan Oakes (Holy Names Academy, Seattle) was a two-time Gatorade Washington Cross Country Runner of the Year; and Kaitlin Ryan (Bronxville HS, N.Y.) ran national top-10 times in the 800 and 1,000.
Some dates to remember: Stanford will send both teams to the Wisconsin Nuttycombe Invitational on Oct. 13, the Pac-12 Championships are Oct. 27 in Springfield, Oregon, and the NCAA's are Nov. 18 in Louisville, Kentucky.