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Nacouzi 25th in national race Montgomery junior finishes in 18:15; Casa's Taylor 40th in 19:18 By STEVE BRAND FOR THE PRESS DEMOCRAT Published: Saturday, December 12, 2009 SAN DIEGO — America’s top 40 high school distance runners aren’t just the fastest, they’re also the most competitive. As a result, it’s not easy for those who are used to winning to find something positive when they are not the first ones across the finish line. Montgomery High’s Julie Nacouzi had a little easier time of it than Casa Grande’s Jacque Taylor, as both finished well back of Megan Goethals, who captured the 31st Annual Foot Locker National Championship race Saturday at Balboa Park. It even took all of Goethals’ fire to win as she passed Chelsey Sveinsson of Dallas on the final step of the race, as both were given the same time — 17:07 — over the challenging 5,000-meter course in a race held in the pouring rain. Nacouzi placed 25th at 18:15 in her first national appearance and will have another chance to qualify, since she is just a junior. The bubbly Nacouzi could find numerous positives after moving up well over the second half of the race which features a large hill which must be traversed twice and uneven footing even on a dry day. “It was a learning experience,” she said, smiling even as she was getting soaked. “I look at the whole week, from the speeches last night at the banquet to staying at the famous Hotel Del Coronado on the beach to getting to know all of the best runners. “This is the first time I’ve run this course and since I like hills, I was hoping I could make a move. But all of these girls are very good. The course really drains your energy, especially after running hard the last four weeks.” Nacouzi made it three of four wins over Taylor in the past month, but since they were both part of the West team, it was not as satisfying as the other victories. For Taylor, it was a disappointing day all around as she finished 40th in 19:18 after placing 30th last year and hoping for an improvement. She said she knew something was wrong almost from the moment she got up. “I always get nervous before a race,” said Taylor. “For some reason I wasn’t nervous at all and that bothered me. Once the race got going, I wanted to move up but I just couldn’t do it and the more I tried, the more frustrated I got.” Many runners in the past, in a similar position, have just either stopped or lost their competitive edge, rationalizing that they got farther than thousands of others and since they had no chance to win, they might as well just enjoy San Diego. But not Taylor, who was still visibly upset a half-hour after the race, trying to figure out what went wrong and listening carefully to world-class runners Suzi Favor-Hamilton who were there as Foot Locker National alums and had faced similar disappointments. “Trust me, I’ll learn from this,” said Taylor, already looking forward to track this spring.
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