Mission for Taylor: The Master’s College Cross-Country Team

Jesse Taylor is more than a self-starter.

He has started a cross-country team at The Master’s College.

Taylor, a fifth-year senior, was a top runner in New Mexico in high school and went to highly regarded Adams State in Colorado before transferring to The Master’s to help prepare himself to become a missionary.

Adams State has won seven National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics cross-country titles.

But at Adams State, Taylor felt that too much of his life revolved around running.

“At Adams State, I made running my god and I didn’t want to do that,” Taylor said. “I wanted to focus on God.”

Still, he missed running after transferring and set about forming a low-profile cross-country team.

“There had been a team here the year previous to my coming here,” Taylor said. “The coach moved away, so the team kind of died out.

“So I just approached (Athletic Director Mel Hankinson) and asked if there was any way to get it going again.”

“(Hankinson) was excited about it, but (the budget) was a big concern. He thought we could get it going somehow.

“Basically we’re running on the money from the Pepsi machines. There are four or five Pepsi machines for the school, and the profits go to the team.”

For runners, Taylor went to the cafeteria.

“At the end of last year, I hung out right at the door of the cafeteria and asked everyone as they came in if they were interested in running cross-country,” he said. “I got 24 people who said they were interested.”

He then recruited his friend, Lorin Jones, to be the nominal coach and to handle the administrative details. Taylor runs the practices, though.

“During the summer I sent out a letter saying that, for sure, we would have the program going and asking (the athletes) to do some training,” Taylor said. “I just kind of suggested some things they should be running, like mileage.”

Taylor is best in track, where he won the New Mexico state championship in the 3,200 meters and was second in the 1,600. At Adams State he excelled in the steeplechase, finishing third and gaining NAIA All-American status at the outdoor nationals in 1989.

He says he likes the steeple chase for the same reason he likes cross-country. He finds it more interesting than just circling a track.

Recently, he was second at the Whittier Invitational, running the four-mile course in 21 minutes 8 seconds.

The team’s results have been mixed at best. Of the 24 who said they were interested, only half decided to run.

Both the men’s and women’s teams have been hampered by outside influences.

The men’s team had eight members at the start of the season, but ineligibility and injuries have left the team at full strength for only three of five scheduled meets. The women’s team never ran for points because it only had four members to start with.

So what’s next?

“I’m not sure right now,” Taylor said. “Mr. Hankinson has talked to me about coaching next season.

“I wouldn’t mind being a coach. It’s something I’d like to do and I thought about it before, but that’s not my main goal. I want to do missionary work in Mexico.”

It was only the second goal of his career, but when Dave Eshelman converted a first-half penalty kick, it gave Cal Lutheran a victory over visiting Claremont-Mudd in a Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference men’s soccer game last Saturday.

The 1-0 victory put Cal Lutheran in sole possession of first place and dropped the Stags to second. The Kingsmen are unbeaten in seven matches.

The women’s soccer team at Cal State Dominguez Hills clinched at least a tie for the title last week in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn.

Dominguez Hills defeated Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, 4-1, and Chapman, 1-0, to improve to 4-0 in the conference.

Cal State San Bernardino is in second place with a record of 1-2.

Dominguez Hills is 11-1 overall.

College Division Notes

Occidental went 7-0 in both the men’s and women’s divisions of a SCIAC multi-dual cross-country meet hosted by Pomona-Pitzer at La Mirada Park last weekend. Occidental’s Jose Garcia finished first overall with an 8,000-meter time of 25:54, and Becky Kopchick won the 5,000 meter meet in 19:26. . . . Cal Poly San Luis Obispo named Charles Sleeper as assistant athletic director for development.