Mariel Ettinger was just 6 years old when Cardinal swimmers and coaches made an impressive showing at the 1988 Olympics. Watching the Games on TV, the tiny towhead shouted, "I'm going to swim for Stanford." Ettinger's parents worked to temper their daughter's expectations. "I got this lecture about how I probably wasn't going to go to Stanford," she remembers.
Ettinger proved her parents wrong -- even though she was only half right. This fall she is expected to make her mark not in the Stanford pool, but on solid ground as a member of the women's cross country team.
Ettinger is just one of six fleet-footed frosh making the women's cross country team a prime contender for an NCAA title. In one preseason poll, Stanford was picked second to Brigham Young University. The Cardinal squad then went on to beat BYU in September.
Just a few years ago, Ettinger and freshman teammate Erin Sullivan did not appear to be on a fast track to becoming world-class runners. Both starred in other sports -- Ettinger in swimming and Sullivan in soccer. They stumbled into cross country and quickly ran to national prominence. Both also come from small towns -- Ettinger in eastern Oregon and Sullivan in Vermont -- where snow covers the ground for several months each year, hampering training.
That two stars could emerge from rural areas without big athletics programs is proof that, in running, an athlete armed with talent and drive still can make it to the top. "There is a purity to it," says coach Vin Lananna. "You basically put on a pair of shoes and go out and run. You don't need a supporting cast."
But it's also a sport where teamwork matters. A squad could win the top four places and then lose a meet if the fifth runner trailed the field. To cement group spirit, Ettinger and Sullivan trained in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., this summer with returning stars, among them senior Sally Glynn and junior Julia Stamps.
For Ettinger, who trained by running in LaGrande, Ore., with her dad and her dog, building the team bond is special. "When we put on our uniforms and got into the magic circle and cheered, I felt butterflies in my stomach," says Ettinger. "I didn't feel pressured. I just felt happy."
