Engesser Takes Success at Her Own Pace

Timing, especially in track, is everything.

Christie Engesser, former Oregon distance runner, was working out on the UC Irvine track in January. She and her fiance, former Anteater sprinter Ben Cesar, dropped by track Coach Vince O’Boyle’s office to say hello.

The conversation escalated.

“I was thinking, ‘That was a really nice workout,’ ” said Engesser, who attended Ocean View High School. “Part of the reason I stopped running at Oregon was I wasn’t getting as much satisfaction from running as I had in the past.

“I had already decided to take classes at Irvine, but I wasn’t 100% positive that I was going to go talk to Vince about running. I don’t know whether the workout felt good that day or what, but I definitely knew I wanted to do this again.”

Without lifting a finger, O’Boyle had improved his team considerably.

“Ben and her walked in that day, and I thought they were just coming by to say hello,” O’Boyle said. “I had known her from her high school days, but I had been told she was looking to go away to school. I didn’t spend a lot of time recruiting her, but I followed her career and we always talked because of Ben.

“They walked in that day and we were talking, then Christie said, ‘I have one more year of eligibility left.’ Then things started happening.”

And keep happening. A week ago, in her first meet for Irvine, Engesser had a time of 2 minutes 11.82 seconds in the 800 meters. It was the 10th fastest time in school history. And that was with minimal training.

She had previously run only one race this season, at Cal State Fullerton as an unattached runner.

Her rustiness showed last weekend when she placed 11th in the 1,500 (4:52.19) in the UCI Spring Break Invitational. Engesser will compete in either the 800 or 1,500, or both, and run in a relay at Saturday’s Big West Challenge Cup at Long Beach State.

“She is ready to go a lot faster,” O’Boyle said. “She’s very tenacious on the track.”

Engesser has found that desire again.

“I had lost touch with why I was a runner,” she said. “It had become a . . . I don’t know if ‘business’ is the right word, but I needed to get back into running because it was fun and I enjoyed it.”

It wasn’t that her experience at Oregon was bad. She had three great seasons there. Engesser was even a finalist in the 800 at the Pac-10 championships as a sophomore.

She missed the next season with a knee injury, and after the 1997 track season, she decided she wanted to come home.

“It was a bunch of things,” Engesser said. “Ben was here, so was my family and support group. I had graduated in June and I wanted to teach, and I was accepted into the Irvine intern program. Everything fit nicely into my plans.”

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Engesser spent part of the fall in Southeast Asia with Cesar, who runs for the Philippine national team. He was competing in meets in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.

“I got to run some, but only on one track,” Engesser said. “I didn’t run off a track because I didn’t know where I was going and there were some safety issues.”

Now, the neighborhood in which she runs is familiar and safe.

Cesar, who finished his college career at UCLA after the Irvine team’s funding was cut in 1992, is an assistant coach at Concordia College.

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In Saturday’s meet, Florence Sterni and Khara Covington continued their strong performances. Covington won the long jump with a career-best 19 feet 1/2 inch, the third-best mark in Irvine history. Sterni won the 100 meters (12.13 seconds) and 200 meters (24.99).

In the men’s competition, Robert Frichtel won the 800 in 1:53.58.

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UCI men’s basketball Coach Pat Douglass had his contract reworked after San Jose State officials showed interest in hiring him last month.

The improvements involved incentives. Douglass’ base salary is a little more than $100,000.