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DOMINANT COLLEGE CAREER ENDS WITHOUT TITLE DATE: Sunday, June 12, 2005 BYLINE: BOB PADECKY PAGE: C1 SACRAMENTO Now, Sara. NOW. Make the move. The pace is too slow. Kick it. They're jogging. You're not a jogger. You da woman. Show 'em. Put the hammer down. Let 'em know Sara's here. Instead Sara Bei was THERE Saturday night, on the inside lane of the track at Hornet Stadium at Sac State, surrounded by the pack, running 10th in the seventh lap in what was supposed to be the NCAA women's 5,000 meters but was looking so much more like a recreational workout. You almost were expecting the 16-woman field to stop halfway through the race for a Slurpee. ``I wish I would have went out earlier,'' said Bei, the former Montgomery star. Meaning, it wasn't until the ninth lap that Bei began to stride out. It wasn't until the 12th lap, the last lap, when she really turned on the switch, blowing past West Virginia's Megan Metcalfe with 200 meters to go, only for Met- calfe to take her at the finish with a burst of her own. It was stunning. Bei wins 5,000-meter races with a kick at 200 meters left. Bei kicks, they fall behind and stay behind. Bei admitted as much afterward. ``I felt dead,'' said Bei, referring to her legs. ``I gave her an opportunity to come from behind.'' It was all so ... goofy, so wrong, so out of kilter, like a gyroscope that upended itself. Bei with dead legs? Bei getting outkicked? Bei was the heavy favorite in this race. Her best 5,000 time was six seconds faster than anyone else in the field. But now Metcalfe is the NCAA champion in the 5,000 with a time that was 19 seconds slower than Bei's qualifying time on Wednesday. Qualifying times are more like recreational jogs, a runner just doing enough to get by to make it to the finals. It was a fair race, a clean race, no excuses from Bei, but still, you couldn't help but think: Megan Metcalfe stole this one. Even Metcalfe said later the slow pace helped her; she's a miler, built for a shorter distance, and therefore had plenty of gas in her tank at the end. Ah, but there's the strategy. Coaches and runners can give themselves migraines by second-guessing strategy. This was the strategy reached by Bei and her coach, Dena Evans: Don't go out early and make yourself a target. Stay back, even if it looks like you are laying back. Wait. Be patient. Nothing wrong with the strategy, but strategies in track are calculated gambles. This gamble didn't work and for the second straight year Bei is the runner-up in the 5,000. It didn't set up this way on paper and it didn't set up this way in the heart. Just minutes before the women's 5,000, Stanford's Ryan Hall won the men's 5,000. Hall is Bei's boyfriend. The sentimentalists already saw the headlines: ``Boyfriend, Girlfriend NCAA Champions.'' Before her race, Bei felt the sentimental tug. ``That would have been incredible,'' Bei said. ``That would have been the only thing better than winning for yourself.'' Fairy tales have undeniable allure and this one had all the elements: Ryan and Sara hold hands and hold medals. Sara battles back from a stress fracture that put her on a stationary bicycle. Sara wins the 5,000 after getting tripped 300 meters from the finishing line as she was leading the 3,000 field in the NCAA Indoors in March. A nice person finishes first. ``A lot of people who compete in the Olympics,'' Evans said, ``have never won a NCAA title.'' Yes, one day that may happen. No matter. Bei has no reason to apologize. She had a college track career that was a fairy tale. She just missed adding one more exclamation point. You can reach Staff Columnist Bob Padecky at 521-5490 or bpadecky@pressdemocrat.com.
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