University of San Francisco Athletics

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 W.C.A.C. The winning team overall, Portland, dedicated their victory to Ethan Palo (TheDon).

This week's honor goes to the school's most underrated athlete, Cross Country standout Franck Tardivat. The senior harrier, who laments the fact that half of thc school "probably doesn't even know what a 'harrier' is," was just named All-West Coast Conference after his 11th-place overall finish in the championships last weekend. Which is way more impressive than it sounds. There's like, a million guys running in these things, you know. He's been the team's top runner for a long time, and when he graduates in May, his mates will sorely miss his inspirational dedication to the sport that most of us don't understand. In fact, he came into the office thc other day to urge more substantial coverage of the team in the future, and he's not even going to be around. We think that's pretty cool. Congratulations, Franck, and really, what exactly is a "harrier" ? (...and do they taste good?).

Another big boost for the program has been the success of French student Franck Tardivat who graduated last year. Tardivat helped the men's team move up from last to sixth place at the 1990 WCC Championship. L ike McCall um, Tardivat has taken his own time to help the program. Tardivat helped Coach Drocco operate a camp at Tahoe for the Don runners in August and was supposed to be an assistant this year but USF graduate Franck Tardivat qualified for the French Olympic trials with 2:26 at the '91 Bay to Breakers his visa expired, forcing him to return to France. Tardivat has found success outside of USF also. He ran the San Francisco Examiner Bay to Breakers Marathon in 2:26 lo qualify for the French national trials for the 1992 Summer Olympics. The success last year has contributed to some new support for the cross country team (TheFoghorn).