Pinto Misses Mom’s Meals, but She’s Running Free in Heartland : Cross-country: Former Katella standout is contributing to Kansas State team and adjusting to life in little Manhattan.

The trees, once green and full as giant broccoli stalks, have changed to a vibrant red, yellow and gold. Bushy-tailed squirrels scurry through campus. The autumn air is crisp and clean, the sky a turquoise blue.

Until a year ago, Martha Pinto had never heard of Manhattan, Kan. Now she runs through its streets and fields--and calls it home. As a freshman cross-country runner at Kansas State, the former Katella High School standout is finding life in a small, Midwestern town to be a welcome change from congested Southern California.

“It’s beautiful here,” Pinto says. “And you don’t see a lot of gangs.”

Not unless you count the gang of Wildcats running through the streets of Manhattan every day. As of last week, Kansas State’s women’s team was ranked 14th in the NCAA, and Pinto has contributed nearly every step of the way.

--At the Wichita State Invitational last month, Pinto was Kansas State’s sixth finisher, placing 11th overall.

--At the Loyola Invitational in Chicago Oct. 5, Pinto was fourth on her team, 12th overall.

--At last weekend’s Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Invitational, Pinto moved into the Wildcats’ No. 3 spot, placing 16th in a field of more than 100.

Kansas State Coach John Capriotti says he is most impressed by Pinto’s fearlessness.

“Martha’s not afraid to put it on the line,” Capriotti said. “I wish everyone here would compete as hard as she does.”

Actually, Capriotti might consider himself lucky that Pinto even came to Kansas State. Her recruiting trip was something of a disaster.

Last January, Pinto flew from Orange County to Kansas City, Mo., and was supposed to make the connecting flight to Manhattan, about 100 miles west.

But Pinto--who wants to be an astronaut someday--didn’t remember anything about a connecting flight, only Capriotti’s instructions to sit tight at the airport until he or another Kansas State representative came to pick her up.

Pinto flew into Kansas City around noon. She took a seat and waited . . . and waited and waited. More than 11 hours later, Pinto finally asked a police woman for help. They drove around the airport, looking for anyone in a Kansas State jacket, a Kansas State van, a Kansas State anything.

“I thought they had forgotten about me,” Pinto said. “Finally we went to talk to this lady (at the ticket counter) to see if they could get me back to California. But I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to see Manhattan.”

Meanwhile, Capriotti was frantic, wondering whether Pinto wandered away and got lost or just decided not to make the trip. Finally, around midnight, he got a call from Kansas City.

His wife, Diane, was at the Kansas City airport for a flight to Chicago and heard Capriotti’s name being paged. She found Pinto, and called her husband. He had Pinto check into a nearby hotel for the night.

The next morning, Pinto took the first flight to Manhattan. Capriotti was waiting for her at the gate.

“He said, ‘You probably won’t want to come here now,’ ” Pinto said. “I said, ‘No, I like this place.’ ”

Of course, the transition to Manhattan wasn’t easy. Pinto got lost trying to find her classes. She missed her mother’s cooking--Manhattan doesn’t have a clue about real Mexican food, she said. And she was so homesick the first few weeks, she called her family twice a day.

“After races, all the girls have their parents with them,” she says. “But I’m usually all alone.”

Midwestern weather was another problem.

Although Pinto usually excels in hot-weather races, the high humidity of August and September wilted her spirits, as did the greater intensity of collegiate distance running.

“It was hard at the beginning because I thought I was good and I’m not--or at least that’s the way it seemed,” says Pinto, who runs about 65 miles a week.

“The first day we supposedly ‘jogged,’ but I was so tired. I was like, ‘This is jogging?’ But I’m getting used to it now. We’re all on the same level basically, so when someone gets hurt one of us fills in.”

Pinto, who won the Orange County cross-country championship each of her four years at Katella, says adjusting to middle-of-the-pack racing was difficult, but her recent improvement buoyed her. The drills and daily weightlifting, she says, makes a big difference in her running, and she likes the way Capriotti explains how different workouts help the Wildcats physiologically.

Of course, there’s always room for confusion. “My high school coaches always said, ‘Stride out more, take longer steps,’ ” Pinto said. “Here they say, ‘Shorten your stride. It’ll make you faster.”

Pinto says the best part about college running is having teammates. Until her senior year at Katella, Pinto was a one-girl team. She often worked out with the boys, and stood alone at the starting line. But that has changed.

“I feel comfortable here with the team,” she said. “All the girls are real friendly, and that makes it really nice. And this is the first time I have people to run with in practice.”

The Big Eight Conference cross-country championships are Nov. 2 at Lawrence, Kan., and Pinto hopes to help Kansas State win its first conference title since 1982. After that, it’s on to NCAA regional and national competition, then indoor and outdoor track.

Other than doing well in running and in school, Pinto says she has only one other goal during her four years at Manhattan.

“I want to see a tornado,” she said.