Facing short rest, heavy winds and talented competition, the Cal cross-country team had to dig deep on Friday at the Sacramento State Interregional Jamboree. Carried by strong individual performances, the Bears were able to tough out a solid showing with the women finishing fifth out of 19 teams and the men fifth out of 14 teams. Weather conditions, on the other hand, proved to greatly affect the Cal cross-country runners.

“It was very windy today,” coach Tony Sandoval said. “We don’t have that kind of heavy winds where we train.”

Similar to last week at the Panorama Farms Invitational in Virginia, the Bears were forced to adapt to their environment. The Bears struggled last week running on Panorama Farm’s terrain as the hills led to a very slow start that greatly affected the Bears’ position in the rankings.

“(The winds in Sacramento) was somewhat like running hills,” Sandoval said.

Many Bears responded well to their settings, as two women finished in the top 25 individually, while three top 25 spots were secured on the men’s race.

Not allowing anything to slow her down, junior Kelsey Santisteban claimed first overall individually as she continued her hot start to the season. Clocking in at a time of 16:23, Santisteban recorded a new season-high, as she appears to be speeding up as the season goes on. Shaving off an average of approximately 30 seconds every race, Santisteban is quickly establishing herself as one of the premier runners in the country.

“Kelsey dominated the field,” Sandoval said. “From start to finish.”

Although Santisteban led the way, both the men and women’s teams were running without expected contributors. Once again, the men had to sit out Chris Walden and Collin Jarvis. After placing second overall at the University of San Francisco Invitational, Walden has sat out the past two races while Jarvis has yet to take the field this season. In addition to the missing runners from the men’s squad, the women’s team did not suit up Heather Cerney.

Despite being short-handed, the men’s team enjoyed a much-needed lift from redshirt senior J.P. Slator and sophomore Leland Later. Slator and Later were two seconds apart from each other, with Slator finishing 10th with a time of 23:53 while Later placed 12th, only two seconds behind his teammate.

Even though there were a handful of standouts, the Bears could not climb higher in the charts. One reason that might’ve affected Cal was the minimal rest in-between meets from last Saturday to Friday. Still, Sandoval views Friday’s race as a stepping stone for his cross-country program as his runners learn to fight through obstacles heading into later this season.

“We made some progress moving forward,” Sandoval said. “I think the big challenge for us was to be able to come back within six days for those people that went to Virginia. Most people were tired but I think we have to be able to come back and have a sharp turnaround because if we qualify for nationals, we’re not going to have the luxury of a couple weeks to recover.”

Richard Lee covers cross country. Contact him at Contact him at rlee@dailycal.org.

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Facing a number of powerhouse schools, the Bears held their ground as the women — led by Kelsey Santisteban, whose time of 16:51.8 was good for fourth place overall individually — placed sixth out of 14 teams. Meanwhile, the men finished ninth overall.

“The start was a lot faster than we anticipated. It was really intense,” said coach Tony Sandoval. “Both races were really fast.”

In the women’s 5,000-meter race, many schools opened up strong and never looked back. The host Virginia Cavaliers dominated, led by second-place Barbara Strehler’s 16:32.7 time. William and Mary also performed well, finishing second while having two runners place in the top three.

In addition to Santisteban, junior Heather Carney gave the Bears a substantial lift, finishing 21st overall with a time of 17:39. Two other runners also finished in the top 50, as sophomore Mariel Mendoza (18:09.7) claimed the 36th spot, and junior Sydney Gray (18:24.2) grabbed the 50th spot.

Although Saturday’s meet saw impressive results from the women, the men did not find as much success. Despite a drastic turnaround effort in the middle of the race in which several Cal runners made up a lot of ground, the men could not pick up their pace fast enough to climb the rankings.

As soon as the gun sounded for the men’s 8,000-meter race to commence, it seemed as if the Bears were in danger of placing near the bottom of the rankings, as nobody from Cal was in the top 50 after two miles.

“We ran a little more conservative because of the hilly course,” Sandoval said.

But the slow start did not define the whole race. After the two-mile mark, Cal senior JP Slater ran ahead of 27 people in a span less than 15 minutes. Slater was 57th individually after two miles, but a burst of speed to close out the race earned him the 30th spot.

But the greatest jump of the day was from California junior Jordan Locklear. Taking more than 10 minutes to hit two miles, Locklear was close to last early on; however, he did not allow the disappointing start to ruin his day and the Bears’ overall score. Passing 35 people, Locklear left several runners in the dust, leaping up from 73rd at the two-mile mark to finish in the 38th spot. Forty-sixth-place sophomore Leland Later and 51st-place Thomas Joyce also continued the trend of making up ground in the middle of the race, with Later passing 26 people after two miles and Joyce passing 24 people after that distance. Although it could have been far worse, the men limited the damage from the slow start to move up in the rankings and earn ninth place overall as a team.

Contact Richard Lee at rlee@dailycal.org.

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“Our first meet was just an initial ‘get out there and see where we’re at,’” said assistant head coach Shayla Houlihan. “This is kind of the first stab at some good competition.”

The Bears will see some fairly strong schools running against schools from divisions such as the SEC and the ACC. Schools participating in the men’s 8000-meter event include UNC, Duke, Louisville, Auburn and Navy.

“This is an interregional meet,” said head coach Tony Sandoval. “We’re certainly going to see teams that we normally don’t get to see. It will give us something to measure ourselves off with.”

Schools running in the women’s 5000-meter event include UNC, Virginia, Louisville, Harvard, Navy, Ole Miss and Auburn.

Last year in the Panorama Farms Invitational, Cal placed fourth for women and sixth for men. For the Bears, this will be their first road competition, and the coaching staff will look for a strong collective team effort. With only a handful of upperclassmen on the roster, the Bears will keep an eye out for potential contributors in the future.

“I’m excited about everyone, honestly, because it’s our first travel squad together, so we’re seeing if all the pieces are finally falling together,” Houlihan said. “I’m excited to see who’s going to step up and be our fourth or fifth person for scoring points.”

A couple of runners looking to be standouts in carrying their team are juniors Kelsey Santisteban and Chris Walden. Santisteban stole the show last month in San Francisco, capturing the women’s individual title, while Walden ran extremely well, placing second overall. Despite the two junior leaders, the Bears will still need to rely on other runners to contribute.

“Cross-country is a team sport,” Sandoval said. “(For) the better teams, their No. 1 runner rotates among two or three people. We’re hoping that that will happen this year. We have been training to run as a group, and hopefully that we’ll have a number of people be our top runner at various meets throughout the season.”

Although it is early in the season, the Bears know exactly what their goals are heading into Saturday’s contest and in their 2013 campaign.

“This starts our goal at getting to nationals,” Houlihan said.

“Every year, we have the expectation of qualifying for the nationals,” Sandoval said. “We’ve had either a men’s or women’s team qualify. We’ve never had both qualify at the same time. That would be something we are looking forward to.”

Richard Lee covers cross country. Contact him at richardlee@dailycal.org.

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Jan Flatley-Feldman/Staff

Maxime Chevee was nervous. Beads of sweat rolled down his face as he slowly took his place at the starting line on the track at Edwards Stadium. With a second to look around at his surroundings, he saw equally anxious runners next to him on the track, those trying to make the Cal cross country team and those on the team who were close to being cut. Beyond the stadium he could see the Campanile and the UC Berkeley campus. Beyond the Berkeley hills, thousands of miles away was his little town of St. Julien-en-Jenoviois, France.

Here he was in America, beginning life at Berkeley like any other student. He was living in Unit 2, suffering through class registration and adjusting to students wearing pajamas to Crossroads, a phenomenon not seen in French schools.

Chevee was not a Cal athlete yet. His summer email to Bears’ cross country coach Tony Sandoval was lost in an inbox filled with 200 other emails asking for a tryout. Despite not hearing back from Sandoval, Chevee remained determined and decided to make a visit to Sandoval in his office.

“He shows up the first week of school and says, ‘I want to run cross country,’” Sandoval says. “He wasn’t a walk-on, he was a walk- in. He just walked in the door.”

Sandoval had informed Chevee of an open tryout coming up but was very straight with him — his chances of making the team were slim. Chevee had also not been running competitively since his time back in France, yet he still laced up hoping to fulfill his dream of running at the collegiate level.
All his life Chevee faced obstacles obscuring his path to becoming a collegiate runner. With every new hill or branch in his way, Chevee just kept running.

Back in France, Chevee ran around beautiful lakes near the France-Switzerland border. He ran short distances to the beach in the south of France near the Mediterranean. He ran in the fields surrounded by mountains covered in abundant snow in the other small French villages of his life. He ran and ran, and was good at it.

However, the academic culture in France put a strain on his ability to run. In America, sports and high school happily coexist. France, on the other hand, forces students to choose: school or sports.

“You can’t run and go to a good school at the same time,” Chevee says. “You have to make a choice and it’s very narrow. Once you’re in to a school, it is hard to change.”

In France, the last two years of high school are spent studying for entrance exams, leaving little time for athletics. For those students brave enough to try to balance sports and academics, there were clubs but no high school teams. Chevee was one of these bold students, joining a cross country club.

However, Chevee was the only member of his age group and was forced to train with older members, leaving him without runners his age. If academics didn’t act as enough of a deterrent, accessibility to mountainous trails in the area was limited, forcing to Chevee to run on flat, boring terrain. Yet despite all these obstacles, Chevee developed a passion for running greater than any deterrent.

He was faced with one of his most important life decisions at the time for college applications. He could continue along the path with many of his French peers and become an engineer or doctor at some high end college, or he could follow his running passion and come to the U.S. where universities couple sports and academics.

“I really didn’t want to give up running, and I didn’t want to go to a private school,” Chevee says. “It was hard to say, ‘Alright, let’s do it,’ but I made the decision.”

Without a recruiting network, Chevee made the decision to risk arriving at Cal and not even making a college team. On top of the risks, Chevee had to leave his family and old life behind. But here Chevee was, on the yellow Edward’s Stadium track facing one of the most important races of his life.

“I was a little nervous,” Chevee says. “If I didn’t make it, there were plenty of other things to do around Cal, but I really wanted to run.”

With one last look at the mountains, Chevee focused in. The whistle blew and only 12 ½ laps and 15:12 later, Chevee was back at the line, this time alone, in first place. Chevee put on a show under pressure and was invited to join the team. For many, 15:12 would be an amazing accomplishment, but it wasn’t in Chevee’s nature to settle so he began to push himself harder to be the best that he could be.

“It was a fine time at that point, but it’s not that fast,” Chevee says.

At the start of his first year, Chevee was 14th on the depth chart out of 20 and had a lot of ground to make up. As a non-scholarship athlete, Chevee pushed himself on and off the track, majoring in molecular cell biology.

Eventually Chevee’s determination paid off. He was placed in the starting seven for NCAA Regionals that year at Oregon, cashing in his best performance of the season. Over the years Chevee continued to improve, earning all-Regional honors twice. Chevee became such an important factor on the cross country squad that he was rewarded with a scholarship after his second regional honor, but more importantly he finally had a team and a cross country family.

“Its great to have a team, it’s so much better,especially since cross country is about the team,” he says. “We all help and push each other.”

As Chevee bolts through the red wood trees up in the Oakland hills, he reflects on his Cal career and realizes how happy he was that he decided to brave the journey and make the transition to a university that speaks a different language.

“The first year was kind of difficult because he never got any of my jokes,” Sandoval says.  “It took him a while to realize my sarcasm. Now he laughs at my jokes. They may not be funny but at least he acts like they are.”

The English language was once foreign to him, but running never was.

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As the rain fell down at LaVern Gibson Championship Course in Terre Haute, Ind., an aura of dissatisfaction surrounded the team. However, a smiling coach Tony Sandoval provided the team with a different perspective.

“As the weeks and months go by the team will realize that it was a good performance,” Sandoval said. “Many people see the NCAA’s as the end. It really is the beginning for those who want to continue on and it’s a springboard for a number of seasons down the road.”

Not since 1990 has Cal had a female runner finish in the top 25 at NCAAs, but that changed when Cal had an unprecedented two runners in the top 25 this year. Senior Deborah Maier earned her second All-American honors with an 11th place finish this year, up 19 spots from her individual performance at last year at Nationals. Maier’s finish is the best finish for a Cal female runner since Kirsten O’Hara’s 11^th place finish in 1987. Behind Maier was senior Chelsea Reilly who was making her first appearance at the Championship. Injuries have plagued Reilly throughout her career, but this year she was determined and her persistence rewarded her with a 24^th place finish and All-American honors along with Maier.

Seniors Taylor Bryson and Taylor Dutch and freshman Kelsey Santisteban were the other three Cal runners to score, finishing within 14 seconds of each other. Bryson showed resiliency by rebounding from a poor showing at the West Regionals by improving her time by 41 seconds to finish 159th. Dutch began the race too aggressively and faded to 176th while Santisteban finished 179th to bring the total team score to 433.

The Championship had one of the fastest fields ever, with Georgetown claiming the team title by barely beating Washington and Villanova. Although Maier took the lead with only a quarter of the race left, she was out kicked by 10 runners as Sheila Reid of Villanova claimed the individual crown.

“One of the most competitive races I have ever seen,” Sandoval said. “To have that number of people break 20 minutes on this course is phenomenal. With 400 meters to go there was 15 people right there. It was a dead out sprint to the finish.”

A noteworthy accomplishment beyond finishing in the top 20 in the country is beating conference rival Arizona who had beat the Bears three straight times coming into the meet.

Despite the intensity of the race, the Bears avoided a let down and the top five athletes made sure they left everything out on the course.

“There are a lot of good teams that come to Nationals and in the heat of battle fall apart,” Sandoval said. “We didn’t fall apart. In 40 years I’ve only had one time where all five athletes ran their very best race. I am very proud of our athletes.”

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This year when Maier looks around, Infeld and Reid will still be among the other top national runners. Looking behind her, instead of the lonely grass that Maier saw last year, the space will be filled by her supportive teammates. In the crisp morning air, a gun will go off and Maier and the rest of the Cal women’s cross country team will set off hoping to top its best ever finish at the NCAA Women’s Cross County Championships.

“Having the team there this year as opposed to last year will not only be more fun, but it will also be more comforting on the starting line knowing we are all in it together,” Maier said.

The Bears will be competing in only their third NCAA Championship and first since 1988 when they finished ninth. This season the women started strong at the Griak and Wisconsin Invitationals and earned enough points to qualify for the National meet despite late season struggles. Considering their level of talent and success thus far, the Cal women feel they have the potential to finish in the top 10.

The Bears will rely on their seniors to once again lead the way and make the most of their last cross country race. Maier, who was an All-American last year, will vie for an individual title while seniors Chelsea Reilly and Taylor Dutch have legitimate chances to break the top 44 to become All-Americans.

“It has been four years of ups and downs, heartaches and excitements and this is the final examination,” Sandoval said. “Hopefully they get an A on it.”

Although the seniors have filled the top three spots of the seven-runner squad all season, they will need some help from their bottom four runners in order to place in the top 10.

The Cal runners who can possibly fill that number five spot are freshman Kelsey Santisteban, senior Taylor Bryson and junior Keena Kohl. While Santisteban has shown raw potential, Bryson and Kohl have improved every meet and will have a stronger sense of urgency as their Cal careers are coming to a close.

“Obviously everyone has to do their part, the top four have been pretty solid,” Maier said. “The difference between us achieving top 10 and maybe a little bit outside that will be our number five runner.”

Although the Bears were confident at the NCAA Regionals against decent west coast opponents, the Cal athletes will now be surrounded by 31 of the best teams in the nation, pushing and shoving for the team title.

“When you see the top runners in the nation lining up next to you, you’ll have some doubts in your mind,” Maier said. “But I’ll be thinking about all the work we’ve put in and how its not just about me, it’s about doing as well as I can for the team, because at nationals a few seconds can be 20 places.”

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“The women’s program has come a long way, especially since my freshman year when it was all about the men’s program,” senior Deborah Maier said. “They were the ones making it to NCAA, and the women really had not shot at all and didn’t have a lot of front runners. The berth is a testament to what a lot of hard work can do.”

A fifth place finish at the NCAA West Regionals helped Cal earn an at-large bid to Nationals on Nov. 21.

The women were led by Maier, who finished second and only six seconds behind the winner, making it the highest finish at an NCAA meet for a Cal female runner. Though Reilly had one of the best races of her career, finishing ninth, and Dutch ended at 26th, the Bears’ bottom three runners struggled.

“We were in good spirits and happy to have made it, but at the same time we realize that we still have some things to work on,” Maier said. “We didn’t quite have a number five runner that stepped up Saturday, the top four runners were solid, but our 5, 6, and 7 were a little bit further back than usual.”

The berth did not come as much of a surprise. Strong early year performances with a first place finish at the Griak Invitational and a seventh place finish at the Wisconsin Invitational made the team confident in its chances and more focused on the ultimate goal: the NCAA Championships.

“Unless a total disaster occurred, we were going to get in,” Sandoval said.

While the women move on, the men’s team swallows disappointment after failing to receive a berth. The men also finished fifth, beating No. 17 Oregon and No. 21 UCLA by a mere two points. Collin Jarvis was the Bears’ top runner, finishing the 10 km race in a time of 30:06, giving him a 12th place finish out of 172 runners.

Cal was on the brink of advancing to NCAAs for the fourth time in five years, but they fell one spot short. After a rough start, the Bears surged late, posting their two best finishes at the Pac-12 Championships and the West Regional, but it wasn’t enough.

“They came together at the very end to run their very best,” Sandoval said. “They put it on the line and came with their A-game. I told the kids to be proud of how they brought it together.”

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The meet, held at the Stanford Golf Course, determines which squads move on to the NCAA Championships. Two of the country’s 18 automatic bids will be awarded to the top finishers. There are also 13 at-large bids given to teams across the country to round out the rest of the 31-team field at the NCAA Championships.

Despite the slim odds of earning a berth, both the men’s and women’s teams are in positions to make it to NCAAs. If they succeed, this would be  first time ever that both teams qualify.

“This weekend could be a historic weekend for us,” coach Tony Sandoval said. “We’ve either had a men’s team or women’s team qualify for NCAA Championships. To be able to get both teams together to nationals — not many schools can do that.”

The men’s and women’s teams have at times been moving in opposite directions. The men have struggled with youth and inexperience but were able to put together their best race at the Pac-12 Championships, placing them just outside the top 30.

There is an added significance to this ranking: Generally, the top 31 teams go to NCAA Championships.

By placing so close to that margin, the Bears have certainly bettered their chances at prolonged postseason success.

The women, led by a strong group of seniors, have won big meets and been ranked as high as No. 10 in the country, yet a poor showing at the Pac-12 Championships dropped them to N0. 26 in the country.

Despite their divergent journeys, both teams will need to have strong performances to earn berths.

“There is the possibility this could happen, but the men have their work cut out for them,” Sandoval said. “They have to have all the stars line up and we have to have everyone run a great race.”

The men’s squad will run in a field which includes four ranked schools but they will have their sights set on UCLA, a team which leads Cal in points and has a good chance of earning an at-large bid.

However, the men’s race is increased from 8 km to 10 km for the West Regionals, a unique twist that may turn into an advantage for Cal.

“It doesn’t sound like much of a difference, but that last 2k can decide the entire race,”  junior Collin Jarvis said. “Over 10k, we have more of an advantage over UCLA, because we have prepared ourselves more for 10k than 8k. If we are going to beat them, this weekend will be the right one to do it.”

The women will race against five other ranked teams. They are aided by the return of leader Deborah Maier, who missed the Pac-12 Championships due to an ankle injury.

One of the best cross country runners in school history, Maier is also the most decorated. She won All-America honors last season. In addition, she has earned All-Pac-10 first team honors two years running; no other woman runner has ever even earned that distinction once.

With the return of Maier to the lineup, the squad is confident in its ability to succeed at the NCAA West Regionals.

“I’m more confident this year than I’ve ever been that we are going to go to NCAA’s,” senior Taylor Dutch said. “All of the seniors feel that because this is our last season we want to make sure that we hold nothing back and do everything we can to run our best and have no regrets.”

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That’s when things began to fall apart.

The heat won the battle it had been waging on Reilly’s body and she began to fade. Runner after runner out-kicked her, resulting in a 20th place finish.

This was the story of the Cal women’s cross country team this past Saturday at the Pac-12 Championships held in Litchfield, Ariz. on the Wigwam Golf Course. The heat along with a variety of other factors led to a seventh place overall finish, nowhere near the potential of the No. 10 ranked Bears.

Before the race senior Deborah Maier decided to withdraw to heal an ailing ankle, leaving the team without its top runner over the past two years. In her absence, the Cal squad was led by Reilly, but the other runners struggled in the heat.

“Taylor Dutch didn’t run very well,” coach Tony Sandoval said. “She is usually very close to Reilly. Freshman Kelsey Santisteban also blew up in the heat, so I was disappointed in that regard. The heat was a major factor.”

The women’s race took place at 10 a.m., yet temperature began to sky rocket as the sun rose higher. After the race, the Cal women were not only shocked at their finish, but also many required medical assistance due to heat exhaustion.

“There was an element of emotional first aid particularly for the women’s team who was disappointed,” Sandoval said. “In the heat, Reilly had to be taken to the first aid, so did Kelsey, so it wasn’t a matter of looking at performance it was how they reacted to all that had happened.”

On the women’s side, No. 16 Colorado took the Pac-12 crown, followed by No. 2 Washington, No. 8 Stanford, No. 11 Oregon and No. 5 Arizona. Although the outcome would have been much different if Maier had raced, the Bears had the lowest finish out of the ranked teams.

While the women took a few steps back, the men’s team took a few big leaps forward towards overcoming their youth and experience by placing fifth overall and beating two ranked teams, No. 22 Washington State and No. 25 Arizona State.

“It was a great race for us,” junior Collin Jarvis said. “It wasn’t what we are 100 percent capable of, but it’s definitely the best race we have had all season.”

Jarvis paced the men for the fourth straight time, finishing 11th with a time of 23:34 over 8,000 meters. The men benefitted from a 9 a.m. start when temperatures were much cooler, allowing freshman Chris Walden and Maxime Chevee, who has been suffering from a knee injury, to finish 19th and 30th respectively.

“It helped the confidence level of our team,” Jarvis said. “We had a race that showed we are capable of doing it, we can go into regionals with a lot more confidence and a lot better idea of what we need to do.”

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Traditionally, the Pac-10 had some of the most talented programs and the addition of Utah and Colorado makes the conference even deeper. While Utah has built a respectable program, Colorado adds another national championship caliber program to the league. The Buffaloes’ men’s squad has won three cross country titles in the past decade (2001, 04, 06) and has a good chance to add one more this year. Colorado will be ushered into the conference with a tough challenge at the Pac-12 Championships, facing No. 4 Stanford, No. 20 UCLA, No. 22 Washington State, No. 23 Oregon and No. 25 Arizona State. On the women’s side, Colorado is ranked No. 16 and promises to challenge the field as well.

“If you look at the West Regionals historically, the top 40 places, you’re probably talking 30-35 of those people are Pac-12 people anyway,” Cal coach Tony Sandoval said. “There is just a smattering of people who come in to break up the elite Pac-12 runners, obviously those other conferences will start filling in people in the lower end of the race.”

The Cal men’s program stumbles into the Pac-12 Championships after a series of difficult invitationals and multiple injuries to some key athletes. The men’s team finished third in last year’s events thanks to a strong core of veterans runners. This year, the Bears are much younger and will have to shake off their bumps and bruises to pull together and overcome their inexperience.

“We haven’t had a good race yet this season where everyone puts it together and this is a good opportunity to do that,” junior Collin Jarvis said. “This is a smaller field so its not quite as intense at the start, but there will still be a lot of fast guys pushing the pace.”

The women’s programs in the Pac-12 are even stronger than their male counterparts this year with five squads breaking into the top 11. The Cal women’s cross country team, currently No. 10, will face off against No. 2 Washington, fresh off its win at the Wisconsin Invitational, in addition to No. 5 Arizona, No. 8 Stanford and No. 11 Oregon.

Considering her progressively higher finishes each year and the success she has had this season, senior Deborah Maier has a shot to become Cal’s first female to win a Pac-12 crown.

The veteran laden women have had a strong season thus far, finishing first at the Griak Invitational and seventh at the Badger Invitational. These finishes along with an appearance in the rankings bode well for the women’s chances at earning an invite to the NCAA Championships, but they will have to prove themselves in the next few meets to secure the berth.

“We’ve really proven ourselves in the past few meets that we are a force to be reckoned with,” senior Taylor Dutch said. “For the Pac-12 Championships, definitely top four or five is doable, but all teams are going to be really close.

“It’s going to be a showdown for sure.”

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