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THURSDAY February 5, 2004 - Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels December 3, 2003 Julian runs for U.S. in international event By Jennifer Squires Ashland Daily Tidings Ashland High alumnus Pete Julian joined forces with four other United States men's distance runners in the 2003 International Chiba Ekiden marathon relay in Chiba-City, Japan, on Nov. 24. Team USA finished ninth in the 16-team event, running the 26.2-mile course in 2 hours, four minutes and 33 seconds. The U.S., which has competed in the Chiba Ekiden since its inception in 1989, placed as high as sixth in 1993 and cruised to its fastest mark (2:01:40) in 1991. In 2002, the U.S. men finished seventh. Chris Graff, 28, of Palo Alto, Calif., loped the starting leg of the relay - a 10,000-meter stretch - in 29:19, which put the U.S. in 13th place. Julian, 32, took over the race for the Americans, running the first of two 5-kilometer legs. His split of 14:25 over the Chiba Prefectural Museum of Art ranked 10th among the 16 racers in the field. In the cool, windy and overcast conditions, Kevin Doyle, Nolan Swanson and Teren Jameson zoomed through the final three segments of the stage marathon relay for the U.S. Doyle, 23, bumped the Americans from 13th to 11th over his 10,000-meter leg. His mark of 29:33 ranked eighth among the 16 runners in his section. Then Swanson, another Oregonian, bested Julian by one second with his time of 14:25 for the second 5,000-meter interval. Swanson, 28, pulled the U.S. up one more spot in the team standings with his performance. But it all came down to Jameson running the anchor - and longest - leg of the relay. His 12,195-meter segment took 36:50 to finish, but when the Salt Lake City athlete crossed the line, he'd tallied the best individual place by an American runner (sixth) and cruised to a ninth-place team finish. Ethiopia won both the men's and women's races in record times. The men took home their fourth Chiba Ekiden victory in a time of 1:55:59, smashing the record of 1:57:03 the Ethiopians set at the Berlin Ekiden in 1992. The Ethiopian women's team flew to a mark of 2:11:22, breaking the previous record of 2:22:41 set by the Chinese team at the 1998 Beijing Ekiden. The U.S. women's team finished 10th in the 15-team field with a time of 2:25:01, a far cry from the team's top time (2:17:09), which earned them second place in the inaugural Ekiden race in 1989. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Site Search: A new improved archive search is coming! Look for it in mid-February! .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - ODOT Road Cams