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DATE: Tuesday, November 23, 2004 BYLINE: By RICH RUPPRECHT SRC'S JACKSON FINDS HIS NICHE There was plenty of good news involving Empire participants in last weekend's North Coast Section cross country championships at Hayward High, starting with a Maria Carrillo girls team championship and boys third place finish and the 10 individuals who also qualified for Saturday's state meet at Fresno. There's a story behind the story for one of those 10 and that would be Santa Rosa Christian's Jeff Jackson, who finished second in the Div. V race and saw his SRC team land a spot at state. Four years ago the odds of both Jackson and his teammates reaching Fresno weren't very good. Jackson, who described himself as a ``short, tubby kid,'' when he started school at Santa Rosa Christian, never really thought about running until he hooked up with SRC running coach Harry Skandera. Skandera had just started the cross country program. Jackson thought of himself solely as a basketball player and has been one of the top scorers for the Lions. But Skandera convinced Jackson to give running a try. ``I really didn't like it all that much and I think I walked as much as I ran my freshman year,'' Jackson, a senior, admitted. His sophomore year, Jackson broke his right leg in two places in a skateboarding accident and didn't shed his cast until just before the cross country season. After that season, Jackson grew and filled out and last year finished third in the CMC meet and even qualified for state in cross country. Another injury suffered in a basketball game, which included a concussion and seizures, finally made Jackson think just maybe running was his sport. So last summer he ran and ran, with Skandera at his side at Annadel and Spring Lake. And this year Jackson finished a surprising second at NCS -- he led for much of the race -- and saw his team finish fourth, good enough for a berth at state. ``I really hadn't put in the work I did this year,'' said Jackson, who credits Skandera with his turnaround. ``He just gave me the confidence. He's a great coach and we're lucky to have him.'' It was only the fifth year of the sport at SRC, a school with an enrollment of about 55 students. At the end of the day Saturday, parents and friends gathered around SRC's boys and girls teams and Skandera and gave them a nice round of applause. MORE RUNNING A couple of corrections are in order from Saturday's NCS cross country story: Rancho Cotate sophomore Shannon Rich finished sixth in the Div. II girls race and advances to state and Casa Grande's Mike Becker finished fifth in the boys Div. II race and also advanced to state. * St. Helena's Brian Cole followed up his CMC boys win with a fourth place finish in the Div. IV race and moves on to state. * Maria Carrillo's Leanne Fogg, who was the first Puma across the finish line and second overall in the Div. III race has pretty good blood lines. Her dad, Greg Fogg, still holds the Rancho Cotate school record in the 2-mile, set in 1978.
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