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Adversity can't stop St. Mary's star runner Despite injury, she will defend 2A title By RANDY HAMMERICKSEN A year ago, St. Mary's High sophomore Martina Patella stunned the field at the state cross country championships when she charged to victory by 30 seconds. A lot has happened to Patella, 17, since her convincing romp. Not all of it has been positive. Foremost, Patella has missed most of the season with a stress fracture of her lower back. She has run only three times, but she'll try to muster the strength to defend her Class 2A girls title Saturday. Cross country championships in all Oregon high school divisions will be contested at Lane Community College in Eugene. Patella admits she's probably not in peak condition to run for the state title mentally or physically because of training time she has missed recuperating from her injury. "The good thing is I'm running without pain now," she says. "It doesn't hurt at all to run now. But I'm not running as well as I did last year." She's getting closer, however. "I'm going to go out and run as hard as I can," says Patella. "I still think I can win if I have a good day. I'll be confident when I get on that course because I won there last year." Patella says her injury, which she suffered on the first day of school in a training run, took a long time to heal. Her stamina suffered, but she hopes experience will help her this weekend. "Some of these people will be in better shape than I'm in, but I think I'm mentally stronger than they will be," says Patella. ``I've already won it. I know I can do it." St. Mary's head coach Joe Volk says he's hopeful for Patella. "We're focusing on her getting a medal and helping the team as much as she can," he says. "She's still our team leader." Volk would like the St. Mary's girls team, which finished third in the state last year, to duplicate that feat. Other St. Mary's girls running on Saturday will be sophomores Michelle Anderson, Emily Jensen, Melanie Crume, Shawna Jackson and freshman Nikki Chalupa. Sophomore Trevor Coolidge of St. Mary's, who won the Big Fir boys title last week, will run as an individual for the Crusaders in the Class 2A boys meet. "I'd like to finish in the top three, but we'll have to see how it goes and how it unfolds," says Coolidge. Rogue River High's boys and girls teams, both ranked No. 1 in the state after winning Skyline titles last Saturday, will be in the Class 3A meet. The South Medford girls and Ashland boys teams will be in the Class 4A meet. Warren Clarida of Rogue River won the boys Skyline title and was followed to the tape by teammate Brandon Padilla. In the girls Skyline race, Selena Harman of Rogue River won and Bobbi Wright of the Chieftains was second. Jodi Minard of Rogue River finished sixth. The Class 3A girls will run the first race at noon. They'll be followed by the 4A girls at 12:45, the Class 2A and 1A girls at 1:30, the 3A boys at 2:15, the 4A boys at 2:45 and the 2A-1A boys at 3:15. Ashland High's Paris Edwards, the Class 4A state runner-up as a freshman last fall, will run for the Grizzlies as an individual. Edwards won her second consecutive Southern Oregon Conference girls championship last Saturday at Bear Creek Park. Individual runners in the 4A boys include Eagle Point's John Lucas and South Medford's Perry Custance. In the 4A girls, they include Kim Harris of North Medford and Anita Sindelar of Ashland. In the 3A boys, Phoenix's Cesar Flores will compete as an individual, as will Amber Emery of Illinois Valley in the in the 3A girls. Today's Sports Index Mail Tribune Copyright� The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford,