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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us November 5, 2005 Raiders gain respect SOU harriers putting together a banner year Raider Harrier Ryan Pfeil warms up at Southern Oregon University. The senior all-star has led this year’s team to the top of the Cascade Conference and Region I rankings. The team will race for a trip to nationals this weekend. Orville Hector | Ashland Daily Tidings By Alan Panebaker Ashland Daily Tidings At 3 p.m. most weekdays at the McNeal Pavilion, rain or shine, one can always find a hardy bunch of guys in short shorts getting ready to get it done. One of the least recognized and least funded sports at Southern Oregon University — the men’s cross country team — is ranked No. 1 in the Cascade Conference and Region I and sixth in the nation at the NAIA Division II level. With regionals in Portland on Saturday and a very probable shot at qualifying for nationals, the unknown long distance runners are stealthily making their way to the top this year. “You kind of stand out as a runner,” SOU all-star senior Ryan Pfeil said. “People see a bunch of guys running in short shorts, and they’re going to yell, ‘run Forrest run’ or ‘get some longer pants.’ But after they yell at someone who’s trying to get in shape, they realize later that that wasn’t very cool.” Pfeil, who has two first-place finishes this year and has led the team to its top position in the conference, said he and his teammates don’t run for the glory or recognition even. Pfeil played soccer in his younger days, and after an injury, he decided to “just start going for runs.” “There’s less to worry about with cross country,” Pfeil said. “You just go. As cliché as it sounds, it’s a rush.” With a hopeful graduation coming up after spring, Pfeil is looking on to bigger and better things after college — and most of them don’t involve running. “This is kind of a last hurrah for me in several ways,” Pfeil said. A member of a band called Shotgun Shepard, author of a book that he is looking to publish and with a journalism degree nearly in hand, Pfeil said he will continue running after his hopeful stint in nationals, but life is probably going to take priority over sport in the near future. It is this mentality of diversity and excellence in all facets of life that SOU cross country coach Grier Gatlin thinks makes his team exceptional. “I try to emphasize the fact that we’re here at college to become totally different people,” Gatlin said. “If you leave in four years the same as you came in, you wasted your time.” SOU Cross Country Stars: Top-ranked team in league and region. Next up: Regional meet on Saturday in Portland. With a team that excels as well academically as it does athletically, Gatlin said the two complement each other. “If you’re becoming better intellectually, you’re becoming a better athlete,” he said. One of these intellectual athletes is Trevor Palmer. A junior, straight-A student with a job dispatching packages for UPS, Palmer is neck and neck with Pfeil for lowest times this season. He also has two first-place finishes under his belt and has kept the consistency of Pfeil in every race. Palmer said it is the consistency of the team and its competitiveness that keeps the top seven runners always a foot ahead of the pack. Since team scores are based on the times of the top five finishers — scoring like golf with the lowest times winning — keeping an entire team together is usually more important than having one or two exceptionally fast guys. “We just all train together at the same intensity,” Palmer said. “We group up during races and kind of keep a pack mentality.” A psychology major, who graduated from Crater High, Palmer said his keeping it together on the cross country course has a lot to do with how he runs his life. “You have to have a lot of other things in place to have cross country be your focus,” Palmer said. Also on the track team for SOU, Palmer appreciates the diligence it takes to run an 8-kilometer race. “Track is a lot easier mentally,” he said. “With cross country, you really have to hang in there.” Palmer has hung in there with his running career in college and grown into one of the best. Gatlin said he is one of many of the cross country team members who did not realize their full potential until college. “A lot of them weren’t fast in high school,” Gatlin said. “Trevor (Palmer) wasn’t even close to where he is now. For that reason, he didn’t get recruited by a ton of people.” Despite lack of funding and recognition, the SOU guys will head to Portland Saturday and, with a top-three finish, should be on their way to nationals in Louisville, Ky., Nov. 19. While everyone on the team has his own preparatory routine, Pfeil said the most important thing is not getting out of one’s normal habits. “In some ways it (the mental aspect) is the biggest role of all,” Pfeil said. “If you know you’re kind of a head case — which I can be — you just have to do what you need to do. You have to take care of business in that aspect. Focus is key.” Alan Panebaker is a correspondent for the Ashland Daily Tidings. To comment on this article, contact Sports Editor Joe Zavala at 482-3456 ext. 3020 or [email protected]. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Deep Muscle Stimulator Ceramic Piggy Banks FREE Entertainment Guide Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products Backpacks Generic Viagra Vegas Travel Guide Search Engine Optimization Sportsbook Absinthe Supply Student Loans Hotel & Airline Reservations African Safari Hammocks Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Bonus Casino King of Spirits ink cartridges Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Mailing Lists Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams