Names Are New, but Edison Still No. 1 : Cross-country: Coach and top runner have changed, but Charger girls again are favored to repeat as State champs.

The new coach came straight out of college, with little idea of what to expect from her new job. The new No. 1 runner came from a youth soccer program, which is where the old No. 1 came from.

New faces have joined the ranks, and old friends have departed, but the bottom line is still the same: The Edison girls’ cross-country team keeps winning.

Coach Stan Stauble quit to tackle other endeavors last winter, and Kristi Kaufmann, fresh from scoring the third-highest heptathlon total in UC Irvine history, took over.

Shelley Taylor, the Chargers’ top runner for four seasons, has become a standout at Arkansas, and Elyse Homberger has come from the soccer field to replace her as No. 1.

With all the changes, Edison could have been forgiven for stumbling this year. After all, how do you replace the state’s best middle-distance runner? And how much impact can you expect from a first-year coach who knows loads about high jumping and hurdling but never ran cross-country?

To be sure, credit goes to Kaufmann for taking a cram course on the sport’s ins and outs, and to Homberger, a sophomore, for bravely stepping to the forefront. But the Chargers wouldn’t be as good as they are without the Evans sisters, or the Formosa twins, or Danielle Eldridge, or Carrie Quinn.

Those six, and No. 8 runner Tanya Futami, are the heart of the No. 1-ranked team in the State’s Division II.

Most of them ran on the 1991 State championship team. They giggled and elbowed each other in the ribs, content to stay in the background while Taylor grabbed all the post-race attention last season.

But this is a new year. This is their year.

“We miss her inspiration,” sophomore Jeannie Formosa said of Taylor, who finished fourth in the Southeastern Conference championship meet last week, helping Arkansas to the team title. “I miss her a lot. She was like the mother of the team.

“Now, we find ourselves without a leader. We all work together, though. Before, she led, and we followed. Now, we’re all together.”

And that has meant big trouble for other teams.

Edison has lost only once this season, to Corona del Mar at the Orange County championships Oct. 17. The Chargers bounced back a week later, however, and defeated Corona del Mar at the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational.

Although neither the runners nor Kaufmann will admit it, they enter the Southern Section Division II preliminaries Saturday at Mt. SAC as overwhelming favorites. It would take something extraordinary to keep Edison from winning championships at the section and State meets.

Corona del Mar, Edison’s biggest county rival, is in Division III. Ocean View, No. 2-ranked in the State Division II, lost to Edison at the Sunset League finals Saturday.

The Chargers concede that they are often cast in the favorite’s role, and they have grown accustomed to fans at their meets lining the course shouting encouragement to opposing runners. “Catch that Edison girl,” they say. “Stay with that Edison girl.”

“We know other people worry about us,” Jeannie Formosa said. “At the same time, we have teams to worry about.”

Knowing she had much to learn, Kaufmann has played all the angles to keep Edison at the top of the rankings, ignoring no detail.

First, she consulted UCI Coach Vince O’Boyle for training advice. Next, she added some of her own cross-training methods--swimming and weight lifting, for example. Finally, she went to each P.E. class hoping to enlist new runners.

Of all her accomplishments, she seems proudest of her recruiting efforts. Last year, there were only 12 runners in the program; this season, there are 30.

“I was a late-bloomer, that’s why numbers are so important to me,” Kaufmann said. “That’s why every single girl out there is important to me.”

No one has made the impact that Homberger has, however.

“The (Formosa) twins brought Elyse out,” Kaufmann said.

Like Taylor, Homberger played age-group soccer, but upon entering high school began to yearn for another sport.

“I played club soccer for nine years,” Homberger said. “I tried out for the tennis team (as a freshman), but I had only been playing for a few weeks and didn’t make the team.”

The Formosas told her she should try cross-country.

“I never knew there was a cross-country team,” Homberger said.

Now, it’s difficult to believe that she has only been running competitively for a few months. At Saturday’s Sunset League finals, she covered the three-mile course in Huntington Beach’s Central Park in a winning time of 18 minutes 18 seconds. The second-place finisher was 25 seconds behind.

And the best news of all--as far as Kaufmann is concerned?

“She’s giving soccer up,” the coach said.

Kaufmann also is making changes in her life.

“I’ve already told the freshmen that I’d like to coach them for four years,” she said. “I had no idea what this would turn out to be like. I had no idea I’d ever be coaching cross-country.”

It’s taken a while, but Kaufmann has grown more comfortable as a coach. And that can only mean good things for the Edison cross-country program.