December 13,1997.

The girls race was won going away, by Erin Sullivan in 17:22.O and a nice
battle fro 2-4 with Mariel Ettinger, Rebecca Mitchell and Christin Wurth. Full
results on www.american-trackandfield.com/atf under news and results. Girls
had torrential rain during entire race. Real cross country races.

After the buckets of rain dumped during the girls race, the rain actually
stopped for a few minutes and the boys were off. There were three call backs
to the line, due to the runners not knowing which line was actually the start.
The course had turned into a steeplechase, with six to ten inches of water in
some spots.

A light rain started with Abdirizak Mohamud from Boston English taking  the
early lead. Shock of shocks, he did have some serious competition. Jorge
Torres, a junior from Wheeling, Illinois, who had made the World junior XC
team last weekend, made a charge at the mile and Isaiah Festa and Torres took
the lead. But Abdirizak was there, ready to cover anyones' moves.  Festa fell
back, but Torres continued to challenge Mohamud through two miles, to two and
a half miles.

But Mohamud was to have his day. Abdirizak ran lightly and beautifully in very
tough conditions. He finished in 15:22.7, well within himself. Jorge Torres
was second (his twin brother, Edwardo, took seventh). The biggest surprise in
the boys side has to be  number eight, Michael Altieri, who was the number two
runner at his high school two weeks ago. Michael hails from Jesuit High in
Sacramento, CA.

Jorge Torres complemented Abdirizak, " I tried to make a move at one and a
half miles, but I guess i just got tired, and Abdirizak was excellent."

An Excellent day for Abdirizak Mohamud was a rainy day for every one else and
a great boys race at the nineteenth Foot Locker Cross Country Championships.

Midwest boys won team by five point over Northeast, 36 to 41 points; West
followed with 44, and South finished up with 118 points.  Northeast girls won
over Midwest girls by four points. 

Congratulations should be noted for meet director Max Mayo and the four
regional meet directors. But we should also note that Jeanine LaVin and her
team from FootLocker made this a super race and the only legitimate high
school championship in this country.

One final point--as a non-golfer, i believe that all golf courses should be
rained on for weeks and then opened for cross country races. This was true
cross country--hill, dale, water, mud, alligators (just kidding).  More
thoughts and interviews to come.          


The Foot Locker XC was sponsored by adidas America with American Track & Field
magazine as the media sponsor. If you would like a copy of the official
program just email us at stanederjr@aol.com.