The Journal

Issue date: 11/2/06 Section: Sports

CLARK

At 6:30 every morning, junior Cayla Clark is out running with her five cross country teammates trying to work out any kinks. Clark is the newest member of the team and only ran in the last three meets of the season, but she is no stranger to competitive sports.

For her first two years at Webster, Clark was a member of the women's soccer team, but this year she decided to run cross country. Clark declined to reveal the specifics of her decision not to play soccer.

"She's an outstanding, individual athlete, a multi-talented athlete, who made a personal decision," said Luigi Scire, women's soccer head coach. "I think it's the thought that she wants to excel at a sport, and she feels that cross country is the sport she can excel at."

Clark still supports her old teammates, though. In fact, it was on the sidelines of a soccer game that Chris Bunch, head coach of Webster's cross country team, first approached Clark about running on his team.

Bunch said he approached Clark about her potential for cross country after he noticed she wasn't playing in the women's soccer game he attended earlier this semester. He said the idea of pursuing cross country had already crossed Clark's mind.

"A lot of athletes have a problem when their careers are over of not having anything to shoot for and compete against," Bunch said. "So, I just urged her to come out and try [cross country] to see if she liked it."

Since she's still new to the sport, Clark ran in the sixth spot on the team, which technically doesn't count toward the team's overall score. Since the first five runners' scores are counted, Clark's biggest goal is to become more useful to her team as this season wraps up and they look forward to next fall.

"I'm still kind of in the transition period," Clark said. "It's totally different. I don't know how to pace myself yet. I'm still trying to figure all of that out. I just got to get used to running and not chasing a ball, not chasing anything, except for the girls in front of me."

Bunch is confident Clark will improve because he believes all meets are just steppingstones to where the runners are going in the sport. Clark now has a legitimate starting point and knows what it will take to get where she wants to be competitively, Bunch said.

"I think for her it's a little different than the other [runners] because she's just starting out," Bunch said. "She didn't even have a time to base anything by, and now she has a time in her head and a mark to hit."

Clark didn't run with the rest of her teammates in the SLIAC Conference meet Oct. 28 because only the top five runners of each team compete in the final meet.

Anticipating the beginning of next season, Clark's main concerns are to improve, have fun and stay in shape. Clark said she had nothing to lose by joining the team for her last two years at Webster.

"I'm going to be out there running anyways on my own," Clark said. "So, I might as well do it competitively. I might not ever place, but that's not really what I'm looking for."

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