Nov. 15, 2002

By Mark La Monica STAFF WRITER

Jenny Payne has a one-track mind when it comes to cross country running. It's a race against the people, not the clock. Time matters only in this sense: Payne has to be one second faster than second place.

"If they're running 18 minutes, you have to run 17:59," the Stony Brook University fifth-year senior said. "Everybody out there has two legs. It's who decides to have the focus to win the race. Who cares if you run 16 minutes if you get 30th place? You have to go out and place high every race."

That is precisely the goal for Payne this weekend. The America East women's champion and her teammates will compete at 11 a.m. tomorrow in the NCAA regionals at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. Payne most likely has to place in the top 12 in the 5K race in order to qualify for the nationals on Nov. 25, a challenge she is mentally prepared to accept.

"At this point we're not going to get any faster," she said. "I know where I have to be in order to have a shot to go."

The program is beginning to blossom under the guidance of third-year coach Andy Ronan. It's no longer just Payne and Jackie Berman. The additions of junior Jackie Nunez, a two-time NJCAA champion at Suffolk CC-Selden, sophomore Leonora Joy and freshman Stephanie Hack have other teams asking what the SBU on the back of their jackets means.

It represents a program on the cusp of sustained prominence, and Payne is as big a reason for it as her coach. She sets the bar, and the pace. "We have the people that aspire to the level Jenny is at," Ronan said. "For the first time, we have a team that could compete in the conference and that brought an added incentive to Jenny."

That concept was one welcomed with great enthusiasm by Payne, who transferred from North Carolina State after redshirting as a freshman. There's only so many training runs a person can do solo. She must seem like a chatterbox when the team embarks on its group runs during practices. "You get to know people really well," she said. "A lot of stuff comes out on those runs."

Maybe they'll produce a trip to the nationals, too.