The “pre-season” is over and cross country is now in full swing as the Strawberry Canyon Track Club did battle in the fiercely competitive races at Golden Gate Park on 9/11. Most of the runners had very strong performances and there were a few off-days.

First was the women’s 4.14-mile race on a fairly dry course, and the Strawberries had two women entered in the very stiff field. Rebecca Eckland, who’s overcome a lengthy bout with and rehabilitation process from Achilles tendonitis, had a terrific opening race, placing 11th overall in an exceptional time of 24 minutes, 57 seconds. Cal sophomore and triathlon club transplant Christine Bowlus ran a very strong race herself, smoking the course in 26:30 and taking 24-place overall. Christine also won her 19-and-under age group at the prestigious race so great job Christine!

The men’s masters race was next and the Strawberry grays managed to field a full team, which apparently placed fifth or sixth overall. Dan Stefanisko paced the masters men with a solid 24:03 performance, good for 20th place overall in the stacked field. Barry Smith was the 5th senior (50-59) and snared 27th place in a time of 24:23 in a very good effort. Next for the Strawberries was Chris Dodge, who had a breakthrough race in 24:40 (33rd place). Dan Sivollella also had an impressive performance in 24:48 (36th place), which was well over two minutes faster than last year’s effort. Darrin Banks rounded out the team’s scoring but after returning from a work stint in Asia, he had a very tough day, straining his calf after the first lap, effectively taking him out of the race and forcing him to hobble in on the second lap (62nd, 26:21). To add insult to injury, he was listed as a Santa Cruz TC member! Bill Brusher finished in 31:34 in his first tour of GG Park as a 60-year-old, and he was 14th in his age group.

The open men’s race was even more stacked as perennial PA-USATF race winner Phil Reid of the Asics Aggies was relegated to an unaccustomed third-place finish behind Ghiliat Ghebray and Bolota Asmerom, both of whom were timed in one of the fastest times ever recorded on that course (19:54)

Greg Timblin continued his monster season with a 7th-place overall showing in a deep field with his blistering time of 20:43. He had to kick down the very talented WVTC runner Malcolm Richards to get 7th and the only thing I can say is the man is on fire. Next across was Tom Haxton, who has been overcoming TDF issues. He had a very good and tweak-free run in taking 15th-place overall, just behind Neville Davey in 21:09. Sean McFarland was understandably a little miffed at his 23rd-place time of 21:37. Dan Chebot, coming off a lengthy injury of his own and still somewhat off of form, was next for the Berries in 22:24 (36th place). Right on his heels and rounding out the scoring was the Swiss middle-distance wunderkind Christoph Wanner, who negotiated the lumpy course in 22:31 (39th). This rounded out the scoring team and the Strawberries appear to have taken 4th among the open men’s team spots.

The ne’er daunted Strawberries continued to pour it on as several other blue singlet clad harriers barreled across the finish line. George Torgun was 41st in 22:50 in his first race as a Berry; Gene Burinsky was next in 23:33 (51st), and Bernie Jones took 58th in 24:15. Remember Mr. Jones because he used to be very, very fast and he might be the guy who gets in shape and blows up next year. Right behind Bernie was Andrew Tibbetts, the former Bates College decathlete, who had a very good run in 24:17 (59th); Keith Gilmore was hot on his heels in 24:20 (60th-place), and was a little ambivalent about his race. Last but certainly not least was 800-meter specialist Joshua Seeherman, who sliced 37 seconds off of last year’s time in a great race, and he negotiated the course in a respectable time of 25:02 (66th overall).