High School Track and Field : International Studies Paying Off for Bache

If you want the story on Kristi Bache’s season, you have to go to Europe.

In Angers, France, in the Loire River Valley region about 90 miles southwest of Paris, you can find the near-empty streets where Bache trained last summer. She not only got into shape--dropping nearly 15 pounds--but also matured and gained confidence while running on those quiet streets. That has helped her go from being a good middle-distance runner as a junior to one of the best in San Diego County as a senior.

“People thought I was nuts,” Bache said. “You don’t see many people running there. It was a good chance to spend time by myself and think in English for a change.”

Across the English Channel lies Newbury, a wee bit north of London. That’s where Bache lived during the eighth grade.

The good part about Newbury, Bache said, was that she really came to love track. The bad part was that she picked up her first case of tonsillitis there, and it has been a lingering problem ever since.

Bache seems to have overcome the latest bout with swollen tonsils, which kept her from training for four days last week. Although her times were not her best in University of San Diego High School’s 67-60 dual-meet victory over host La Jolla Thursday, Bache won three events--the 2-mile (12 minutes 17 seconds), the 880 yards (2:28.3) and the mile (5:40.9)--and ran a 1:02.7 anchor leg on the winning mile relay team to help USDHS clinch the meet.

Bache said she just wanted to win and to run as fast as she could in doing so.

She learned that in France. Before she traveled there to improve her French and spend a month with a family, she would set lofty goals for herself and become disappointed when she couldn’t meet them.

“I would always be hoping that I was going to run faster, and it was just supposed to happen somehow,” Bache said. “My whole attitude changed. This year, I just try to run as fast as I can. That way I don’t get down.”

Before, she would go out with the leaders. But at the Arcadia Invitational, Bache hung back and then passed several runners on the last lap to finish third in the 800 meters with a county-best time of 2:13.41. She came from 400 yards back to win the 1,500 meters at the Mt. San Antonio College Relays in 4:31.01 two weeks ago, trimming nearly 18 seconds off her previous best despite driving rain.

Bache woke up the morning after Mt. SAC with a sore throat. She is hoping to make it to the state meet on June 4 without having her tonsils removed.

She might not have had that problem if her geophysicist father, Tom Bache, had not taken a job in Newbury. But she might not have had her current enthusiasm, either.

It was almost a foregone conclusion that Bache would be a runner. She started at a young age with her parents, Lolitia, who has run eight marathons and the 10 kilometers in 38:47, and Tom, who ran in the 1968 U.S. Olympic marathon trials. But Bache didn’t begin to train seriously until she went to England.

“They had a track club there,” said Bache, who has accepted a partial scholarship from UCLA. “I got to do all kinds of things, throw the javelin, run the hurdles. It was great.”

But France was where that enthusiasm blossomed.

“I think it helped her mentally more than physically,” Lolitia Bache said. “We didn’t think she would be good enough to go somewhere like UCLA before she went to France. It’s been a big part of her running this year.”

County leaders Onnie Ferguson and Shannie Freeman of Crawford will not compete the rest of the season because they are academically ineligible, Coach Darryl Nelson said. Ferguson, a senior, was the county leader in the 100 meters (12.34) and the 200 meters (25.6). Freeman, a sophomore, had run a 58.28 400 meters.

In other meets Thursday:

PALOMAR LEAGUE

Poway 83, Orange Glen 44--Anita Dulay of Orange Glen had a personal best of 15 feet 6 inches in the long jump before this week, but she jumped 17-8 3/4 at Poway to take the county lead. Dulay, a senior, also jumped 17-6 in a dual meet Tuesday. Teammate Laura Hughes took the county lead in the discus with a throw of 131-10 1/2. Kim Vidal won the 300-meter low hurdles (46.8) and the 400 (1:00.8) to help Poway tie Mt. Carmel (which defeated Fallbrook, 82-45) for the league championship.

BOYS PALOMAR LEAGUE

Mt. Carmel 77, Fallbrook 58--Steve Uriell won the 110- (15.4) and 300-meter hurdles (40.8) to help Mt. Carmel finish undefeated. Fallbrook’s Brent Noon won the shot put (58-2 1/2) and discus (171-3).

GROSSMONT LEAGUE

Mt. Miguel 77 1/2, Granite Hills 58 1/2--Frank Davis won the 100 (10.8) and 220 (23.0) for Mt. Miguel, which won the league championship. Mt. Miguel’s Kevin Jones won the 330-yard intermediate hurdles (38.2) and the 120-yard high hurdles (15.6).