PVCC Puma Press: April 2006

After a disappointing 2006-2007 season, the Paradise Valley Community College Cross-Country team is hoping to rebound this season and take back the national title.

Head coach David Barney has a storied past leading teams to four national titles. His teams have also been five-time runners up, and they have won third and fourth place each once. Barney has also been awarded two Coach of the Year Awards, one in 1997 and the second in 2004. Barney knows the road to glory.

Since cross-country first started at PVCC in 1997, the women’s team has never finished lower than fourth place nationally. The men’s team also did not finish below fourth place except in 1999 when they finished in sixth place nationally. Neither team faired as well last year, though.

The women’s team came home in eighth place and the men’s team placed seventh. Two bright spots were Samantha Hatch, named to the National Junior College Athletic Association’s All-American second team, and Heath Hatch who received an Honorable mention. Neither of these two runners (brother and sister) will be returning this year.

This year’s team has a core of experienced returning athletes with four men and one woman. These five runners should mesh well with the allotment of talented freshmen who have joined the team. Combined, they make a group of young, strong runners ready to recapture the national title.

Coach Barney teaches the team how to set goals and work better as a team. He and Sereena Harmon, the assistant coach, run alongside the young athletes every morning at 6 o’clock and have been doing so since June 1. This has given the team time to run and work together.

One of the returning male runners, Matt Rowell, said about this year’s team, “It feels more like family, and we are a lot more determined.”

So how exactly do they train for this upcoming season?

They run.

Coach Barney says, “Everything is running, but we do different things in the running. One day we will find a hill and run up it multiple times. Another day we will alternate jogging a mile and running hard for a mile.”

The team doesn’t just jog around a hot, polluted valley every morning; its members train hard every day all over the valley. The national championship is what they want..

Rosters

Men’s Team: Scott Mayberry, Matt Rowell, Juan Quintero, Angel Sanchez, Richard Harasyn, Mitchell Moses, Jonathan Abel, Ryan Dirren, Jordan Hunke, Jared Johns, Geoffrey Olson, Adrian Ramirez, Christopher Stanley, Jeremy Sudbury.

Women’s Team: Stephanie Wilson, Janica Pegram, Renon Furr, Marilyn Curley, Farrin and Fayrene Holden, and Monroe Tahmahkera.