SAN FRANCISCO – The USF Invitational cross country season opener was more of a training day than a race day for Stanford on Saturday at Golden Gate Park.
The Cardinal used close to the minimum of five runners in each of the men's women's races, and there were no freshmen in either lineup. There were familiar faces, including cross country All-Americas Elise Cranny, Christina Aragon and Fiona O'Keeffe for the women and Steven Fahy for the men. Thomas Ratcliffe, the 2016 Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, returned to action for the first time in two years.
The meet served as a tempo workout for Stanford, with each team running as a pack and working toward hitting certain splits. Still, the Stanford women took the first three places, with Aragon officially winning the women's 6-kilometer (3.73-mile) race in 21:17.3, followed by O'Keeffe with the same time and Cranny in 21:17.4. Stanford scored 24 points, with runner-up Nevada scoring 66 in the 10-team competition.
All six Stanford men finished within 0.8 of each other from 11th through 16th, with Ratcliffe leading the way in 25:18.0 over 8K (4.97 miles) in his first collegiate race since the 2016 NCAA Championships. Stanford scored 65 points, placing behind Cal (37) among eight teams.
Fiona O'Keeffe. Photo by Spencer Allen/SportsImageWire.com.
"We made sure we got a good effort in, while also making sure everyone comes out of it really well recovered to start our training camp," said Chris Miltenberg, Stanford's Franklin P. Johnson Director of Track and Field. "They ran really controlled and relaxed. It was an awesome start. It was just good to get everybody back, and get the ball rolling."
The meet also served as the first true training session of the season. The team reported on Thursday, had a day of orientation and meetings on Friday, and then the race. Those who did not race did their own workouts.
Grant Fisher, the defending Pac-12 champion and a contender for the national title, dodged spectators as he completed his speed work on the ¾-mile Polo Fields rim. The Card freshmen ran as one group and Card veterans, including men's All-America Alex Ostberg, ran as another.
Photo by Spencer Allen/SportsImageWire.com.
But perhaps the most heartwarming sight was that of Cranny, an 11-time All-American who is finishing her collegiate career this fall after completing her track and field eligibility in June with a third-place NCAA 1,500-meter finish in school-record time.
Cranny has sandwiched her track success around a couple of hard-luck seasons in cross country since a Pac-12 runner-up finish and an NCAA 12th-place finish as a freshman. Her presence makes a big difference for a team ranked No. 3 in the country (the men are No. 4) and with high hopes.
"It says a lot about how invested she is in the team that she chose to come back just for cross country when she could have turned pro after last spring," Miltenberg said. "That's what she brings, a passion for being part of the team and doing it for other people and with other people. She brings a tremendous amount of maturity and experience, and a steady presence, having been through the ups and the downs, and is ready for anything that comes along the way."
Blair Hurlock. Photo by Spencer Allen/SportsImageWire.com.
With all NCAA teams required to schedule a meet within the first few weeks of training, Stanford competed in the meet to serve that purpose, although true racing won't come until later in the season. Next, is a two-week training camp in Bend, Oregon, beginning Sunday. This is the first training camp in Bend. Stanford spent camp in San Diego last year and Mammoth Lakes, at 7,000 feet, in the years before that.
"This is the happy medium of all the pieces we've looked for," Miltenberg said. "Mammoth was too high, San Diego was a great place to run, but not that seclusion we were looking for. This checks all the boxes. There are great places to train, and it's also a place we can get a lot of volume. That's the idea, to continue to build like they've been doing all summer."
Elise Cranny. Photo by Spencer Allen/SportsImageWire.com.
Golden Gate Park was blanketed in its typical summer fog, with the dust of the dirt paths clouding the runners as they strode under the cypress canopies toward the giant meadows of Hellman Hollow.
For Stanford, a perennial national contender, it was all part of the experience at the start of what the Cardinal hopes to be a special season.
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USF Invitational
At Golden Gate Park
Winners and Stanford runners
Men (8K, 4.97 miles)
Team leaders -- 1, Cal 37; 2, Stanford 65.
Individuals -- 1, Garrett Corcoran (Cal) 24:31.2; 11, Thomas Ratcliffe (Stanford) 25:18.0; 12, DJ Principe (Stanford) 25:18.0; 13, Blair Hurlock (Stanford) 25:18.5; 14, Alek Parsons (Stanford) 25:18.6; 15, Tai Dinger (Stanford) 25:18.8; 16, Steven Fahy (Stanford) 25:18.8.
Women (6K, 3.73 miles)
Team leaders -- 1, Stanford 24.
Individuals -- 1, Christina Aragon (Stanford) 21:17.3; 2, Fiona O'Keeffe (Stanford) 21:17.3; 3, Elise Cran5.ny (Stanford) 21:17.4; 8, Jessica Lawson (Stanford) 21:34.7; 10, Julia Heymach (Stanford) 21:47.
Photo by David Kiefer.