Off to a Fast Start : Just a Few Months Ago Azusa Pacific’s Jenee Ellis Wasn’t Even Thinking About Running Cross-Country, Now She’s Team’s Best

It was a late September afternoon and the Azusa Pacific University women’s cross-country team was working out in the track stadium.

The eyes of Coach Cres Gonzalez were squarely focused on a newcomer, Jenee Ellis.

The 19-year-old freshman had approached the field with thoughts of preparing for track in the spring.

Only she left as a cross-country runner.

“That first day she went out there and stayed with my front girls and it just blew me away,” Gonzalez recalled.

“By the first meet she was already my best runner,” Gonzalez said.

In that meet, Oct. 8 in the Biola Invitational, Ellis was the team’s top finisher in a 5-K time of 22:12. In a little more than a month since, her times have improved dramatically.

Ellis lowered her best mark to 21:40 with a seventh-place finish in the Golden State Athletic Conference on Oct. 15 before coming in with a 19:34 against many NCAA Division I runners in the Cal Poly Pomona Invitational on Oct. 29.

She saved her best finish for the National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics District III finals Nov. 5 by placing fourth in 19:53. That qualified her for Saturday’s NAIA National Championships at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside in Kenosha.

Not bad for a freshman. But her success is even more impressive when you consider that before this season Ellis had never competed in cross-country or track.

About the only previous experience Ellis had as a runner was in junior high, but that was limited.

“I ran a little in junior high but I didn’t ever think I would pursue it in college,” the 5-5, 120-pound blonde said.

Ellis had been a good athlete in high school at Northglenn of Colorado, where she competed in soccer and volleyball. She had been captain of the volleyball team but said her best sport, by far, was soccer, in which she made the all-state team as a senior.

However, when she decided to attend Azusa Pacific, she did not plan on continuing in either sport. In fact, she did not have any intention of competing in sports.

“When I was in high school I played soccer, but I think I just got burned out on it,” Ellis said. “When I came to college I decided not to go out for sports and just concentrate on school. But when I came out here it was kind of weird not competing in anything.”

So Ellis decided to give track a try--despite the fact the hadn’t ever competed in the sport before. She had planned to work up to competing for the track team in the spring.

That was before her impressive showing on the track in late September.

That has added cross-country into her plans.

Gonzalez thinks her future in that sport is bright.

“I think if we keep her healthy and she trains right, there is no doubt she can be in the low 17s (minutes) or high 16s in cross-country,” he said. “In track I would say she’s going to be an excellent 3,000-meter runner.”

The coach credits Ellis’ success to a tremendous desire.

“I think her psyche is of somebody who doesn’t ever quit and keeps going until it’s over,” he said.

Gonzalez said her success on the track has a lot to do with her background in soccer.

“I think the soccer skills she had have helped with her running gait in cross-country,” he said.

Not to mention how playing soccer has helped improve her mental outlook about sports.

“The coach I had (in high school) really helped me mentally,” Ellis said. “A lot of athletics is mental, and he really instilled a good attitude in me.

“My soccer background also helped my endurance in cross-country. But it also showed me that to be a success it was going to be hard work.”

After coaching her this season, Gonzalez knows that Ellis doesn’t mind hard work.

“She’s been the biggest pleasure coachingwise,” he said. “She will do exactly what I say. She’s the most coachable athlete I’ve had in my three years here.”

Maybe that is why Gonzalez is expecting big things from Ellis--perhaps as early as Saturday in the nationals.

It will certainly be the biggest test of her blossoming cross-country career.

“This is the first meet where we’ll see what the training has done for her,” Gonzalez said. “Everything else she has done has come on pure talent.”

Although he realizes the competition will be tough, he said he thinks she is ready for the challenge.

“I know she will do well because she ran at Cal Poly Pomona against a lot of Division I competition and did a 19:34,” he said. “That was a good time for only her third race. That showed me that she could compete against the best of competition.”

Gonzalez has also been impressed with the steady improvement she has displayed in workouts since the District III meet.

“I wanted to see where she was so I worked her to the ground and she worked out real well,” he said.

“If the workouts she is doing are indicative, a top 40 finish is a definite possibility. If she does a little better than that, a top 25 finish--that would make her an NAIA All-American--is a possibility.”

Ellis is hoping that her coach’s assessment of her is correct.

“Cres has encouraged me that I can run in the top 40,” she said. “That’s something I hope I can do. I don’t think that he’d say I could do that if I couldn’t.”

She expects to improve more next season with track and a summer of practice behind her.

“I think this track season will give a good example of what I can do, and I hope I can improve and get better next season,” Ellis said.

That may be true but, considering her early success as a distance runner, she has already made a pretty good first impression.