Bay Area East?

When the famed "[Hail To] The Victors" was written for the University of Michigan in 1898, it didn't seem odd that the Wolverines were called, "The champions of the West!" So as PAC-12 power Stanford makes its run in the next few years, it might make sense to think of the Cardinal as "The champions of the East."

That's because the Palo Alto school has been successfully fishing in Eastern waters for recruits as 11 of the 50 runners on the Cardinal men's and women's cross country rosters starred for high schools in either New York or New Jersey. Nine of those 11 have raced in the Millrose High School Mile and all of them have experienced The Armory.

Three of the runners — Sarah McCurdy (Bay Shore, N.Y.), Tori Pennings (Warwick Valley, N.Y.) and Kristen Reese (Carmel, N.Y.) — come from the high school Class of 2008. Two others — Sophia Ginez (South Brunswick, N.J.) and Marco Bertolotti (Port Washington, N.Y.) — joined the Cardinal last fall.

But it was the current freshmen class that truly bolstered the numbers as six area athletes headed West. Highly-acclaimed recruit Aisling Cuffe (Cornwall, N.Y.) was joined by the Rosa brothers, Jim and Joe (West Windsor Plainsboro South, N.J.), Mary Kate Anselmini (Ward Melville, N.Y.), Tim Luthin (Warwick Valley, N.Y.) and Molly McNamara (Red Bank Catholic, N.J.). "I think the number of East coast kids we have is one of the strongest testaments to how good the program is," said McNamara. "Not only is Stanford getting athletes like me to come from 3,000-plus miles away, but they are also signing the studs from across the country like Aisling, Jim and Joe."

Of the 11, only Ginez and Joe Rosa didn't run the mile at Millrose. Even volunteer assistant coach Hakon DeVries was a Millrose high school miler back when he ran for John Jay of East Fishkill.

Last weekend Stanford hosted its own invitational at "The Farm," the home path on the Stanford Golf Course. The men beat UCLA, 27-52, and the women downed UC Davis, 24-138, in a meet serving as the collegiate debuts for Cuffe and the Rosa twins.

Cuffe ran with team leader Kathy Kroeger and crossed the line second, covering 6,000 meters in 20:12, only five seconds behind Kroeger. Both are former Foot Locker National Champions, Kroeger in 2006 and Cuffe last year. McNamara was the fourth Cardinal to score placing eighth overall in 20:51.

"Aisling and I flew out together in early September for camp in Lake Tahoe," said Luthin. "The cross country team had a two-week camp there where all we did was eat, sleep, run and get to know one another, which was a blast. The whole freshman class is really tight and all the familiar East coast faces are making the adjustment much easier."

Stanford not only boasts a loaded freshmen class, it returns six of its top seven from last year's squad that placed 13th at the NCAA Championships. Coach PattiSue Plumer is very happy with how the veterans and youngsters are blending.

"Honestly, I was a little nervous about having so many freshmen, but it worked out really well. Our upperclassmen embraced the freshmen and the freshmen were really receptive. Even though we have a bunch of stars, they were able to take on the role of a freshman.

"Sometimes some of those superstar freshmen will come in acting like they know everything and it can be offensive to the upperclassmen, but it wasn't the case with this group. They have a great blend of talent and willingness to learn and it could not have gone better with how willing they were to listen to the upperclassmen. It's giving our team a great dynamic where the freshmen are allowed to grow, but they don't have to carry the load."

The Stanford Invitational men's race was won by veteran Chris Derrick in 23:15. Freshman Jim and Joe Rosa ran unattached, but Joe finished as the fifth Cardinal across the line, placing 13th in 24:23 over 8,000 meters. Jim Rosa was 41st in 24:52. Luthin placed 107th in 26:00 while redshirt freshman Bertolotti was three ticks behind Luthin.

"I was definitely happy with the freshmen guys," said Coach Jason Dunn. "We still have three weeks until the next time they might race, so we have some more time to evaluate. It made sense to just have them run unattached today."