Fullerton’s Vega Is Back and Leading the Pack

Terry Vega was regarded as one of Cal State Fullerton’s most promising cross-country runners as a freshman. Titan Coach John Elders went so far as to call her potentially “the next Heather Killeen,” a comparison with the Titans’ top all-time female distance runner.

Vega finished 14th in the women’s division at the 1998 Big West Conference meet, the second-best effort by a freshman runner.

Not long after that, however, tendinitis developed in both her knees, and she missed the track season the following spring. She also had to sit out the 1999 cross-country season, then ran only two competitive races last spring in track.

But Vega hopes her problems are behind her now. She is running cross-country this fall and has led the Fullerton women in the team’s first two meets.

Vega finished 65th among 147 runners in the Aztec Invitational last weekend in San Diego.

“I know there’s still room for a lot of improvement, but I think I’m over the hump now,” Vega said. “I feel like I ran well at San Diego. I just have to be patient.”

Her time in the San Diego meet was 20 minutes four seconds. She ran 19:29 in Fullerton’s season-opening meet on the Titans’ home course.

Those times are still well off her top efforts as a freshman. She ran 18 minutes 26 seconds in the 1998 conference meet, and had her best time of the season at 18:02 earlier in finishing 30th at the Stanford Invitational. She also was timed at 18:32 in the NCAA West Regional, where she finished 62nd among 197 runners.

Elders thinks Vega will get stronger as the season goes along.

“She’s still not back to a 100% fitness level yet, but I think she can be by the end of the season,” he said.

Elders has altered Vega’s workout schedule to try to reduce some of the strain on her knees. “She takes one day a week off now, and she does alternative training either in the pool or cycling on another day,” Elders said. “We feel she’s training well now. She thought the race at San Diego was a step forward for her.”

Elders thinks Vega still has the same long-range potential he predicted for her as a freshman.

“What it’s going to take is for her to be able to train consistently for a full year,” Elders said.

The Titans will compete in the UC Riverside Invitational Saturday.

IRVINE IMPACT

Although he thinks that cross-country is a year or two away from “having a major impact,” UC Irvine Coach Vince O’Boyle says he is pleased with how the runners in both programs are developing.

The 22nd-ranked women’s team, led by a fourth-place finish by senior Kareen Nilsson and a sixth-place finish by freshman Julie Manson, finished second at the Aztec Invitational on Saturday. The team title went to Texas A&M.; UCLA was third. Two weeks ago, Irvine finished first at its own invitational, placing five runners in the top 20.

“This is maybe the best team we’ve had here in a long time,” O’Boyle said. “It’s a young team with only two seniors. The rest are freshmen and sophomores. But they are very mature.” O’Boyle expects the women to compete for the Big West Conference title.

“The key to college cross-country is how well you condition yourself during the summer,” O’Boyle said. “They definitely came in ready to go from the start.”

The men, picked to finish fourth in the conference in the coaches’ preseason poll, believe they have a chance to do better. At the Aztec, the team finished fifth as junior Jon Doroski placed 13th, sophomore Travis Morisoli was 23rd and senior Chris Evans was 25th.

O’Boyle says it will take time for the word to get out that Irvine’s cross-country program is no longer a pauper. Students passed a referendum in May, 1998 to pay for more athletic scholarships and facilities and the scholarship budget for the men’s team went from $5,000 to the equivalent of the NCAA maximum of 12.5 scholarships worth about $10,000 each. The women went from a $33,000 scholarship budget to about $180,000.

“Being patient is a key,” O’Boyle said. “We went after some really big names in cross-country last season and to be honest, we didn’t get them. But it’s just a matter of keep plugging away at it.”

NOTEWORTHY

For the first time since cross-country was restored at Chapman seven years ago, a Panther team has won a meet title and also had the fastest runner on the course. Freshman Chris Mais, formerly of Los Alamitos High, was the first across the finish line at the recent Redlands Invitational, leading Chapman to victory over three other teams. . . . Much-improved Utah State (7-3) opens Big West women’s volleyball action Friday at Fullerton (3-7) and Saturday at UC Irvine (5-2). Boise State plays at UC Irvine Friday and at Fullerton Saturday. The matches begin at 7 p.m. . . . Kim Levey, a sophomore setter for the Cal State Fullerton women’s volleyball team, set a school record with 97 assists in the Titans’ five-set loss to Texas Christian Saturday at Ft. Worth.

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Staff writer Paul McLeod contributed to this story.