Sports - Sports News

POSTED: Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009

WHATCOM CONNECTIONS: Former Sehome standout ready to help Stanford make run at title

Competing for a cross country national championship is exactly why Jake Riley decided to go to Stanford University - that and the biomechanical engineering degree he's working hard to achieve.

"Cross country has always been my favorite sport," the former Sehome standout said in phone interview. "One of my biggest goals in coming here to Stanford was that I wanted to be up on the podium at the NCAAs and to be in that mix."

Riley and his Cardinal teammates will get a chance to do exactly that on Monday, Nov. 23, when they travel to Terre Haute, Ind., for the NCAA National Championships.

As the No. 1-ranked team entering the championships, Stanford is the favorite to win its fifth national title overall.

"I think we would be disappointed with anything less than first," Riley said. "We've been focused on winning the title and being the best all season, and we've won every meet so far this year. Being on the podium would be good, but I think we would feel like we underperformed if we're not number 1. We want to prove our number 1 ranking."

Riley, a sophomore, will definitely play a big role in whether or not the Cardinal can grab its first title since it won back-to-back crowns in 2002-03.

He has consistently been among Stanford's top three or four runners and has three top-10 finishes so far this season.

Riley placed sixth at the Pacific-10 Conference Championships on Oct. 30, and was the third Cardinal runner to cross the finish line, helping the team to an easy win over second-place Oregon.

"This is the time of season that I live for," said Riley, who won an individual state championship in 2006 and helped Sehome to a 2005 team title during his high school cross country career with the Mariners. "I love to run in the postseason. I improved on last year's finish at the Pac-10s (seventh), so that was good. The real tone for this year for me, though, will be how I do at nationals. All the races so far have been leading up to that."

Riley should be well rested for the race, after he sat out last weekend's West Regional Championships.

"At the regionals, the whole point is just to finish in the top two and get an automatic berth to the NCAAs," Riley said. "There's no real glory in winning. Because of that, we were able to sit some of the more banged up guys and give them a chance to rest up and be fresh for this week."

The Cardinal still had the top three runners, easily winning the title and earning a spot in Monday's race.

"It was a little bittersweet for me," said Riley, who travelled with the team to Eugene, Ore. "It was neat watching those guys run at the front and finish strong, but at the same time, it would have been great to have been out there running with them."

Riley said that has made him even hungrier as he prepares to race in the national championships for the second time.

Last year as a redshirt freshman, Riley finished 55th overall with his time of 30 minutes, 31.4 seconds. He was the third Cardinal runner to complete the 10,000-meter course and helped the team to a third-place finish behind Oregon and Iona.

"I'm hoping to finish in the top 30, or even higher, this year," said Riley, who earned All-America honors during the spring track and field season with his eighth-place finish in the 10,000 meters at the NCAA Championships. "The higher I can finish, the better chance I give my team of winning the title. ... After sitting out last week, I'm fired up and ready to go."

Despite all his success at Stanford, Riley still holds tightly to his Sehome roots.

He said he enjoys meeting up with former teammate Mason McHenry, a strong middle distance runner for Arizona State, during the spring season, and he was happy to see Scott Carlyle become the fourth Sehome boys' runner - joining Riley, Alex Grant (2002) and Brett Alsop (1987) - to win a state cross country title earlier this month.

"I was really excited when I saw that," Riley said. "Scott was around there my senior year. I didn't see him a whole lot then, but I was his councilor at camp. He's a great kid, and it's great to see him have success. It was good to see the girls' team win again, too. I guess this is one of the last classes I ran with, and it was good to see Annie (Moore) and the girls get that championship again. It's great to see (co-coaches Mark) Kerr and (Kevin) Ryan have that success again, too. They meant so much to me and helped me get to this point."

Former Squalicum standout Bronwyn Crossman also will likely compete in women's national championship race on Monday. She finished 47th overall with a time of 22:08.08 on the 6,000-meter course at the West Regional Championships to help the University of Oregon finish second and clinch an automatic berth.

Reach David Rasbach at david.rasbach@bellinghamherald.com or 715-2271.

NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS

When: 9:08 a.m., Monday, Nov. 23

Site: LaVern Gibson Championship Course, Terre Haute, Indiana

TV: Versus