Running by the Letters : For UCI Women, Code Is Crucial to Cross-Country Communications and Championships

When Jennifer Abraham, Jill Harrington and Beth McGrann line up for a cross-country race, they have more than running on their minds. They have a secret code that’s as easy as A, B, C.

In fact, that’s exactly what it is.

The three UC Irvine runners use a lettering system to communicate with each other without letting opponents in on their mid-race condition.

“ ‘A’ means ‘Let’s go for it. Do a surge. Break away,”’ said Abraham, a senior. “ ‘B’ means ‘Well, maybe not just yet. Let’s keep this pace.’ And ‘C’? That’s ‘Help me. I’m dying. Pull me along.’ ”

Not exactly the stuff of CIA intrigue, but team tactics such as these have helped UCI beat perennial power UCLA twice this season and place five in the top six to win the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. championship two weeks ago.

“It was ‘A’ all the way at conference,” Harrington, a junior, said. “We three have really learned to work together that way. And now Amy (Dabul), Buffy (Rabbitt) and Lori (Wilson, the Nos. 4, 5 and 6 runners) do the same. When we’re packed together, we feel so united. It makes us so much stronger.”

During the PCAA championship race, the code was used when Kelly Buzza of Fresno State began to close in on the Irvine trio at the two-mile mark. Harrington heard her footsteps and let McGrann and Abraham know. It was a definite ‘A’ situation.

“I heard her coming,” Harrington said. “And pretty soon we had packed together and took off on a surge. We can really psyche people out that way. It’s three against one.”

Abraham said she felt pressure last year as the lone No. 1 runner.

“It’s so much better to have Jill and Beth up there,” Abraham said. “It’s like you’re working together and supporting each other at the same time. It takes that pressure off of being out there all alone.”

The Anteaters hope that teamwork helps today in the NCAA District 8 Championships at Fresno’s Woodward Park. The UCI men’s team also will compete, having won the men’s PCAA championship. PCAA champion Ralph Garibaldi leads the Anteaters.

Either team can automatically qualify for the NCAA championships Nov. 24 in Tucson by finishing first or second. Four other berths are distributed throughout the eight districts for teams finishing third.

Also, the top three runners from each district can qualify for the nationals as individuals even if their team does not.

Besides Abraham, McGrann and Harrington, other contenders for individual berths are former University High School runner Polly Plumer of UCLA and Sally Woods of California.

“If any of us has a great race and makes it alone, it won’t be like the other two will be upset,” Abraham said. “We’ll be really happy for each other. No matter what the outcome is, I think we’re close enough that we’ll just say, ‘All right. That’s really great.’ It’s our support system.”