E-Mail
Print
tool name
close
Friday, Nov. 20, 2009
UC Merced cross country off and running
It took the better part of a year for Adrian Garcia and Rogelio Grijalva to make their dream a reality.
Through some word of mouth and a whole lot of hard work, the UC Merced roommates began accumulating runners.
Their efforts came to fruition in the fall when the school recognized their group as the school's official Cross Country Club.
SUN-STAR PHOTO BY MARCI STENBERG Members of the inaugural UC Merced cross country team from left: Adrian Garcia, Erika Lucero, Liset Garcia and Rogelio Grijalva.
While their inaugural season is winding to a close, Garcia said the club's excitement was renewed about two weeks ago when when its official Bobcat uniforms arrived.
The group will debut them Saturday morning at the Merced Running Club's annual Turkey Trot Run.
The race will be held at Applegate Park, with the starting line at the corner of 26th and O. The racing begins at 8:15 a.m.
"My roommate and I have worked on this since last year," said Garcia, who ran cross country and track at Golden Valley. "We've got 23 members now, 15 guys and eight girls, and we've had a good season.
"I'm a local whose raced in the Turkey Trot for a few years, so we wanted to get the club involved."
Turkey Trot organizer Terry Richardson was equally pleased to help out the up-and-coming cross country program.
"When we heard UC Merced had a cross country team I got a hold of them and told them we wanted to let the people know that they were there," Richardson said. "You have to let yourself be known before you're supported."
Richardson hopes the club's participation will help attract a few more people out to the MRC's annual fundraiser.
"The Merced Running Club was founded in 1968 and this was our first race," Richardson said. "All proceeds go to the Merced Rescue Mission. We try to help out with their Thanksgiving dinner and we also have a shoe drive going on.
"When runners are done with shoes, they tend to still be in great shape, they just can't handle the pounding of running anymore. So runners tend to accumulate a lot of shoes."
The Turkey Trot will have a kids' 1-kilometer race, a 2-mile run/walk and a 5-mile race. The preregistration fee for kids is $8 and $15 for adults. The fees go up to $10 and $17 if participants wait until the day of the race.
Richardson said awards will be given to the winners and each pair of shoes donated gets the participant entered in a raffle.
"It's a fun event for a good cause and people can come out and meet the UC's newest team," Richardson said.
A few rules are needed to help foster a feeling of community. We encourage a free, CIVIL and open exchange of ideas in a climate of mutual respect, but any post that violates someone's right to use and enjoy mercedsunstar.com is prohibited. Before you post, please read the terms of use and obey these simple guidelines. Here are the ground rules:
1. Be yourself. A nickname will be used for posts, but if an editor finds a user without a verifiable name , that user will be warned or banned.
2. Keep it clean. Foul language (defined by prime-time standards) will not be tolerated. Neither will the intentional misspelling of foul language or the use of non-English curse words.
3. Be truthful. Do not lie or link to sites that may be considered libelous, defamatory or false.
4. Be nice. Don't harass anyone. Don't threaten anyone. Don't use racial slurs. Don't post anything sexually explicit.
5. Be an individual. Do not advertise or solicit. Do not harvest any information for business use.
6. Be original. Do not post copyrighted material.
7. Follow the law. Don't do anything or post anything considered illegal by city, county, state or federal regulations and laws.
On most news stories, the commenting period is closed after three days. If you wish to continue a discussion, please use The Sunspot forum.
@Nyx.CommentBody@