The USF Cross-Country Team was a complete turnaround from 1987 and previous years to 1988. In the past, both the men and women's teams struggled to field five runners each meet. It was crucial that they had a minimum of five runners for each team at the starting line in order to keep the U.SF varsity sports qualified to be in Division 1A. In fact, the men's team was hurting so bad in its number that it had to borrow players from the USF Baseball and Basketball teams to get a third, fourth, and fifth runners. Thus, the spirit of each team was not as serious or competitive and the runners entered the meets with an "Oh well, it doesn't matter how we do" attitude.
This paved the team a mental weakness and a huge disadvantage during their races. They were not very competitive in the WCAC. However, USF obtained a new and dynamic cross-country coach, Colleen Wright, who devoted herself to building a team with a winning performance. Under her guidance, the teams fielded at least five regular, serious runners each meet and ran with a competitive attitude that was desperately needed. Her motivation led to strong men and women's teams racing in the WCAC and against other schools, and this gave her the WCAC Coach of the Year Award for Cross-Country.
The USF men and women's teams had some very unfortunate breaks this year. The women's leading runner, Heather Kipp, finished her season early due to serious stress fractures in her shins. Andrea Stoutfer then filled in the number one spot for the Women's team. For the men, Ethan Palo was the top runner, but suddenly was killed in a car accident late in the season.
The loss of a friend and "running buddy" was a big blow to Ethan's teammates, but the team still ran strong under the new team leadership of Franck Tardivat and Doug Pajer until the end of the season. The men's team ended up beating St. Mary's in the WCAC. The winning team overall, Portland, dedicated their victory to Ethan Palo. The men and women's teams are looking forward to the upcoming years, and if you are a decent runner, come join the team next year (The Don).
