October 2, 2001

LBSU Hosts Invite, Saturday: The cross country teams return home this week and will host the Long Beach State Invitational on Saturday. The men's race is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. and the women's race is at 9:45 a.m. El Dorado Park East (not West) is located off of the 605 Freeway and Spring Street in Long Beach, between Studebaker and Alamitos Boulevards.

Teams: Men's teams competing: Men of Troy, LBSU, UC Irvine "B", Pacific West Track Club, and UCSB Alumni; Women's teams competing: USC, LBSU, UC Irvine "B", Pacific West Track Club, San Diego State and LBSU Alumnae.

Results: Results will be posted at www.flashresults.com/flashwest by about 11:30 a.m. Results will also be available at www.longbeachstate.com. For coaches, more information can be gathered by calling the cross country office at (562) 985-2318.

The Coaches: Director Andy Sythe is in his 13th season as director of both the track and field and cross country programs. During Sythe's tenure, 49er track athletes have achieved 70 NCAA qualifying performances, 55 conference champions, had 18 All-Americans, three Big West Athletes of-the-year, one NCAA national champion and another NCAA runner-up. In cross country, eight 49er student-athletes have earned All-Big West Conference honors. Dana Colligan Gutierez is in her second season as the distance coach for LBSU. Larry Henderson is in his first season as a graduate assistant coach.

Dr. Dre-a in the House: For the second straight meet, Drea Palacio (Fresno) led the 49er women, finishing 70th in Palo Alto with a time of 23:16. The women's team finished 19th out of 25 teams.

Stehmy-ing the Competition: Brian Stehmeier (Running Springs) picked up a personal-best 26:37 time at the Stanford Invite, finishing 49th against a field of national-caliber runners. The time of 26:37 was the fifth fastest LBSU time on the Stanford Course. The team's 13th place finish (out of 27) was two places better than last year.

Top Newcomers: Matt Bates, Arturo Garcia and Brian Robles are the top male newcomers, while Jaclyn Pederson, Betsy Lively and Sharon Burnett are the top female runners. Bates is an all-stater, Garcia is one of the top California runners, and Robles is a three-time all-league pick. Pederson was a Junior National qualifier, Lively finished third at the AAU XC Nationals, while Burnett is strong transfer from Portland State.

Young Guns: The men's team features seven freshmen, four sophomores and no upperclassmen, while the women's team has seven freshmen, five sophomores and one junior.

Rest of the Schedule: The Cal Poly Invite on October 13 will be a tune up for the Big West Championships two weeks later (Oct. 27). The West Regionals will be held in Tucson on November 10, while Nationals will be hosted by Furman University (S.C.) on November 19.