Sports: Cross country teams head west for Calif. invitational

Published: Wednesday, September 25, 2002

A mere two weeks after the UNM Lobo Invitational Meet, the men's and women's Lobo cross country teams will head for Palo Alto, Calif., for the 29th Stanford Cross Country Invitational.

The meet, which takes place Sept. 28, will be UNM's first out-of-state meet of the season. The team has five out-of-state meets in all, traveling as far as Terre Haute, Ind., and Provo, Utah, to compete.

Head coach Matt Henry has had an impressive record both on an off the field. A track runner for UNM in the early '70s, Henry has been head coach of the cross country team for three years. During his career as head coach he has led the men's team to two consecutive fourth place victories at the Mountain West Conference Outdoor Championships starting in 2001. Henry is also the first UNM coach to receive the Mountain West Conference Men's Track and Field Coach of the Year.

Junior Ben Ortega placed first at the Lori Fitzgerald Invitational held in Santa Teresa, N.M., and third at the UNM Lobo Invitational held at the UNM Golf Course. Ortega listed several advantages the Lobo runners will have over competition this weekend.

"It's not just the altitude, but it's a harsh climate for a cross country runner to run in. (New Mexico environmental conditions) will give us an advantage over our competition," Ortega said.

Ortega added that the team has grown a lot over the past year due to better coaching strategies and new recruits that have "added to the depth of to the squad."

"We're far superior runners now," he said.

In a preseason poll the Mountain West Conference ranked the Lobo men's team a third and the Lobo women's team a fifth.

Sophomore Jaquelyne Gallegos conquered the competition at the Lori Fitzgerald Invitational and the UNM Lobo Invitational, claiming fourth and second place respectively.

Unfortunately, Gallegos was involved in a serious automobile accident on Sept. 21 that will sideline her career for this season. Coach Matt Henry anticipates that with the help of rehabilitation therapy Gallegos will be running again this spring.

The Stanford Invitational race lengths do not differ from the course lengths at the Lobo Invitational, however, the course layout will force cross country members to develop course sensitive strategies. Ortega said that the number of runners drastically affects the approach and also increases the danger of the course.

"There's going to be a lot of runners which means that it's going to be a very hostile environment," Ortega stated.

He added that working together as a unit could deflate the physical dangers of hostile environments.

"That's the single most important skill that we've developed in the past year," Ortega said.

The skill has obviously paid off as Ortega, Matt Gonzalez, and Cameron Clark have not finished a race with more than a 12-second lag time between them.

Seventy-five teams will compete this Saturday at the Stanford meet. Forty-five women's teams will sweat it out in the 6,000-meter race and 30 men's teams will battle endurance and strategy in the 8,000-meter run.

"I think our biggest competition is going to be ourselves, we're our only competition. Whatever we do in a race comes down to us," Ortega said positively.