BIG WEST CROSS-COUNTRY : A Nice Day: Tansley Repeats for Men’s Title

The group gathered at Carbon Canyon Regional Park were probably no better than third on the list of those most delighted to wake up Saturday morning and discover the Santa Ana winds were not blowing:

1. Homeowners in high-risk fire danger areas.

2. Firefighters.

3. Big West cross-country runners.

Prepared to battle wind and smoke, the athletes competed under clean, blue skies and gentle breezes. All in all, a perfect day for a run in the park, which is pretty much the way it was for Cal State Fullerton’s Mike Tansley and Utah State’s Alisa Nicodemus.

Both defending champions, each left the field far behind en route to impressive repeat titles.

Tansley covered eight kilometers in 24 minutes 33 seconds, the fastest time in conference history and 22 seconds ahead of Utah State’s Muchapiwa Mazano, who finished second. Nicodemus ran the women’s five-kilometer course in 17:22, a whopping 37 seconds ahead of second-place Traci Goodrich of UC Irvine.

UC Santa Barbara, with runners finishing fifth, sixth, seventh and ninth, ended the Irvine women’s streak of four consecutive Big West team titles with 43 points. Irvine and Hawaii tied for second with 81. Fullerton was seventh with 176. Utah State won the men’s title with 51 points, Fullerton finished second (60) and Irvine was fifth (92).

Tansley had three worries before the race, the weather and Utah State’s two runners from Zimbabwe--Mazano and Gray Mavhera.

“I expected it to be smoky, and they said the winds were coming back,” Tansley said. “I was happy because the wind is the worst to run in.”

The three men were running together when Tansley started to make a wrong turn before the one-mile marker. He quickly recovered, thanks to the shouts of race officials, but Mavhera, who had followed, reacted slower and tripped over Tansley. He scrambled to his feet, however, and maintained his position in second place.

Mazano and Mavhera complained that race officials had led them astray, and Mavhera said he was “discouraged” after the fall.

“It’s their responsibility to know the course,” Titan Coach John Elders said, “but I can’t give much credence to it anyway because no one changed positions, and it happened so early. I don’t think anybody was going to run with Mike today.”

Tansley had enough energy left to do a little finger-waving victory dance as he crossed the finish line. And he was hardly breathless a couple of minutes later.

“I saw him fall, so I figured that was as good a time as any to make a surge,” Tansley said, smiling. “Coming in, I wasn’t sure whether to try and burn them out from the beginning or wait and outkick them at the end. About the three-mile mark, though, I decided to see what kind of shape they were in.”

Another spill, this one a few yards short of the finish line, allowed Irvine’s Dan Galindo to take fourth in 25:01. Nevada’s John Howell struggled to his feet and gave up just the one spot, staggering in at fifth. Fullerton’s Brian Johnson (25:07) finished sixth, and Tansley’s brother, Andrew, was eighth in 25:13. Irvine’s Todd Coulston (25:15) was 10th.

The women’s race was pretty much a Carbon-Canyon copy of the men’s event, minus the flying bodies. Goodrich, still feeling the effects of a two-year-old knee injury, hung with Nicodemus in the early going, but she was 25 seconds behind by the four-mile mark. Long Beach State’s Stacy Pando, from Costa Mesa, was third in 18:12, almost a minute back.

“I’m really disappointed in the way I ran today,” Goodrich said. “I mean, she ran great, but my knee hurt and I just seemed to focus on that.”

Fullerton’s Heather Killeen, who finished second to Nicodemus last year, was a spectator Saturday because of a hip flexor injury, but she was on Nicodemus’ mind, anyway.

“I just felt really good today, but I felt really bad for her,” Nicodemus said. “I missed the whole track season with a hip injury, so I know how it feels.

“I never felt like I pushed it at any certain point, I just kind of maintained what I was doing early. I guess it’s because I train in the altitude up at Utah State, but I never really hit that point down here where I feel like I’m dying.”

And she didn’t even have to worry about smoke getting in her eyes.