Cordes, Culpepper Crowned USA Fall Cross Country Champions
Topping fields of about 800 individual competitors and 80 USA Track & Field (USATF) club teams, Jared Cordes, Shayne Culpepper, Hansons Running Shop and Nike Farm Team all earned U.S. national titles.

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Posted Monday, 16 December, 2002

Cordes, Culpepper Crowned USA Fall Cross Country Champions
Hansons Running Shop, Nike Farm Team Win Team Titles
By Mark Winitz, Running USA wire

ROCKLIN, Calif. - (December 14, 2002) - Cross Country European style is typically soft, muddy, slippery and challenging. Make that cross country California style too. Running in the remnants of a typhoon that hit the northern portion of the "Golden State" on Saturday, competitors at the 2002 USA Fall Cross Country Championships braved gusting winds up to 40 miles per hour, sloppy conditions and rain at Sierra College near Sacramento. Coincidentally, the last time California hosted these harrier championships - in Golden Gate Park in 1989 - the day was also wet and windy.

In the men's 10 kilometer Open race, Jared Cordes of the Wisconsin Runner Racing Team defended his individual men's title in 31:26 by remaining patient until the final lap of the 2-kilometer multiple loop course and concluding with a strong closing kick over the final 150 meters on the Sierra College track. Cordes whipped past Dave Cullum (Nike Farm Team) who tried to steal the race on a puddle-soaked final uphill with 300 meters to go. Cullum finished second in 31:29. Third placer Brian Sell led his winning Hansons Running Shop/Team USA Michigan to victory in 31:31. Jay Schoenfelder (Wisconsin Runner) was fourth.

Cordes, 25, tucked into a lead pack of nine men that broke away mid race, running aggressively despite stiff headwinds on the front side of the loop that blew down signs, snow fencing and banners.

"I ran in second or third place most of the way," said Cordes. "Whenever there was a lead change I'd just tuck behind and draft off the leader. Basically, I just ran with the Hansons guys right up at the front. At the end Cullum, who I've run against in steeplechases, moved up, and I knew it would be tough to out-kick him because he has a little more speed. Fortunately, I just had enough to hold him off."

Cordes became the first Open man (or woman) to win back-to-back USA Fall Cross Country titles.

In the Open women's 6K race, 2000 Olympian Shayne Culpepper (adidas) broke away from Jenelle Deatherage and Melissa Buttry on the backside trails of the course with about one kilometer remaining to claim the women's title in 21:47. Deatherage (Wisconsin Runner Racing Team) placed second in 21:53. Buttry (unattached) finished third in 22:06. Fourth placer Sarna Becker was the first finisher for the Nike Farm Team who won the women's open team title.

Culpepper, 29, primarily a track runner who has won only one other cross country race in her career, said that she was a little concerned about the weather.

"The wind was so swirling that it didn't make a difference drafting," she related. "It was so bad, I figured the worse it gets, the more fun it will be. In Colorado, we get some serious wind storms, but this was as bad as I've ever seen it."

For both men's and women's winning teams, clinching the annual harrier club titles was immensely satisfying. At last year's Championships at Battleship Park in Mobile, Ala., Hansons Running Shop won the closest team competition in the history of the event. Hansons and the Nike Farm Team each finished the men's team competition with 40 points, with Hansons capturing the team crown due to its fifth-place finisher completing the course ahead of the Farm Team's fifth-place competitor. This year, Hansons - who put 5 men in the top eleven - handily beat the runner-up Farm Team 35 points to 57 points despite having one of its top runners, Richie Brinker, lose a shoe virtually at the start of the race. Brinker got the shoe back on and finished ninth.

Last year, the Indianapolis-based Indiana Invaders women's team beat the Farm Team by 11 points for the women's crown. In Rocklin, the Stanford-based Farm Team clearly came out on top, scoring 28 points to the Invaders' 87 and Boston Athletic Association's 88.

USA Masters Championships (age 40 and over) were also contested at the event. Sandy Meister-Meredith (San Diego Track Club), a former kick boxer and a world class duathlete, won the women's 10K event in 40:16. David Olds (Southern California Track Club) topped the men's masters 10K in 33:46.

The USA Fall National Cross Country Championships serve as USA Track & Field's national championships for club teams. USATF Association clubs, comprised of runner-members who live in the same area, are the heart and soul of post-collegiate American distance running. These clubs reside within the 56 USATF member Associations and provide guidance, support and camaraderie to their members. In contrast, the USA Winter Cross Country Championships focus
more on individual athletes and serve as the selection event for U.S. teams that compete in the IAAF World Cross Country Championships every March. The 2003 USA Winter Cross Country Championships are scheduled for February 15-16 in Houston, Texas.

USA Fall Cross Country Championships
Rocklin, CA, Saturday, December 14, 2002
Rainy and windy

MEN - 10K
1) Jared Cordes, Wisconsin Runner, 31:26
2) Dave Cullum, Nike Farm Team A, 31:29
3) Brian Sell, Hansons Running Shop, 31:31
4) Jay Schoenfelder, Wisconsin Runner, 31:31
5) Jeff Campbell, Hansons Running Shop, 31:35
6) Greg Jimmerson, Nike Farm Team A, 31:40
7) Justin Young, Hansons Running Shop, 31:40
8) Geoff Fleming, Indiana Invaders, 31:43
9) Richie Brinker, Hansons Running Shop, 31:45
10) Matt Thull, Wisconsin Runner, 31:48

WOMEN - 6K
1) Shayne Culpepper, adidas, 21:47
2) Jenelle Deatherage, Wisconsin Runner, 21:53
3) Melissa Buttry, unattached, 22:06
4) Sarna Becker, Nike Farm Team, 22:13
5) Miesha Marzell-Arno, unattached, 22:14
6) Emily Enstice, unattached, 22:20
7) Amy Lyman, BAA, 22:36
8) Katherine Newberry, unattached, 22:39
9) Mari Chandler, Nike Farm Team, 22:40
10) Carmen Ayala-Troncoso, unattached, 22:45

MEN'S TEAM
1) Hansons Running Shop, 35
2) Nike Farm Team A, 57
3) Wisconsin Runner Racing Team, 66
4) Team Eugene, 168
5) Nike Farm Team B, 179

WOMEN'S TEAM
1) Nike Farm Team, 28
2) Indiana Invaders, 87
3) Boston Athletic Association, 88
4) See Jane Run, 121
5) Reebok Aggie Running A, 127

For full results of the USA Fall Cross Country Championships (individuals and
teams), which were hosted by the Reebok Aggie Running Club, go to:
http://www.venuesports1.com/xcnatls/ or www.usatf.org

# # #

Ryan Lamppa, Running USA Media Services
USATF Road Running Information Center
5522 Camino Cerralvo
Santa Barbara, CA 93111
(805) 696-6232, fax (805) 696-6252
http://www.runningusa.org
http://www.usaldr.org

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