Riverbank runner a cross-country rock star

Riverbank High senior burns up the trail; will he earn national title?

By WILL DeBOARD
wdeboard@modbee.com

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RIVERBANK -- German Fernandez walks the halls of Riverbank High School with a group of schoolmates. He wears a beanie, hiding his tousled hair. He's as anonymous as anybody, just another face in the crowd.

But the 5-foot-9-inch, 155-pound Riverbank High senior receives rock star treatment at cross country meets. He's the best cross country runner in Stanislaus District history and the fastest runner in the country this fall.

In a sport often decided by a few seconds, he routinely has won races by more than a minute.

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On The Hive: Will DeBoard's blog post about German Fernandez
CAN'T SLOW HIM DOWN
   After a season playing for the football and basketball teams, German Fernandez chose track and field over baseball for the spring of his freshman year. He was timed in 4 minutes, 31 seconds in his first competitive 1,600-meter run -- with about a week of training. He went on to run a 4:22 that season, one of the top freshman times in the state.

   Four months after knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus -- and a day after running a 4:05 1,500 in a meet -- German and girlfriend Georgina Arnold were jogging -- just for fun -- in the Davis Stampede. German was running the 13.1-mile half-marathon, and Georgina was doing the 10K. They split at a fork in the road, and German's easy day vanished.
   "People were passing me," he said. "I just wanted to run."
   So German took off. Instead of running 6-minute miles, the plan going into their fun run, he won the race in 1 hour, 9 minutes (a 5:19 pace) and qualified for the U.S. Senior Nationals.
   "I didn't go," he said. "My coach would have killed me."

   The teen was running in the Trans-Valley League championships at Legion Park in October. A half-mile into the race, Riverbank assistant coach Johnny Vizcaino noticed German's shoe was untied and told him.
   "I didn't want to stop, but I had to tie my shoe," German said. "I did it pretty fast."
   He completed that first mile in 4:45 and finished the race in a course-record 14:42.

   German and his friends pronounce his name with a "G." At home, his parents use the proper Spanish pronunciation: "air-MAHN."
   "It was just easier for people to say it with a 'G,' " he said. "I like it. It's an original name."

   When German isn't training or doing homework (he carries a 3.1 grade-point average in college prep classes), he's probably watching ESPN or following one of his favorite teams on the Internet. For the record, he likes the Oakland Raiders (NFL), Los Angeles Lakers (NBA), New York Yankees (MLB) and in England's premier soccer league, Manchester United.
   "I love all sports," he said. "I'm just a big sports fan."
-- Will DeBoard
What's Next

• WHAT: 29th annual Foot Locker High School Cross Country Championships

• WHO: Eighty of the nation's top cross country runners -- 10 boys and 10 girls from each of four regions -- meet for the national championships. There is also a team race between regions.

• LOCALLY: Riverbank senior German Fernandez enters the boys race with the fastest 5-kilometer time in the nation: 14 minutes, 24 seconds.

• WHERE: Morley Field at Balboa Park, San Diego

• WHEN: Saturday. Girls at 9:15 a.m., boys at 10.

• ON THE NET: The races will be Webcast live on www.footlockercc.com.

• GERMAN'S ROAD TO NATIONALS: At the Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV race Nov. 10 at Willow Hills in Folsom, he broke the course record with a time of 15:03. At the CIF State Division IV championships on Nov. 24 at Woodward Park in Fresno, he won in a course-record 14:24. And at the Foot Locker Western Regional Saturday at Mount San Antonio College in Walnut, he won on the rain course in 14:53.

He signs autographs on dollar bills, has a Wikipedia entry and is the topic of debate on running Web sites across the nation. German is being heavily recruited, and Riverbank cross country coach Bruce Edwards says he'll be able to go "almost anywhere." Thousands of fans waited until the final race of the day to see the teen win a state title Nov. 24 in Fresno by a margin of 49 seconds.

Fans will line the course again Saturday, when German runs in the Foot Locker National High School Cross Country Championships at Balboa Park in San Diego.

"What German's done this year is nothing short of amazing," Edwards says. "We kind of expected him to have a great year, so it isn't a surprise. But it's still amazing."

German has shattered course records -- cross country races generally cover 5 kilometers on a dirt path -- this fall. On

Nov. 24, he broke the 21-year-old mark at the California Interscholastic Federation state meet by

14 seconds. The record was held by Olympian Marc Davis. German won his second state title in his third season of cross country competition. And he became the first Stanislaus District athlete to win the Foot Locker West Regional championship at Mount San Antonio College in Walnut, a race that featured some of the top runners in the West among the field of 211. German beat Luke Puskedra of Utah by

15 seconds. The two are considered the top two runners in the nation.

But there's more to German than his running ability.

He's a merry prankster who is adept at hiding friends' cell phones and car keys. He's a fiery competitor who, when playing "horse" with friends in his driveway, adds letters and extends the game until he wins. And sometimes, he's a painfully shy teenager who won't wear a shirt given to him by his girlfriend because he feels it makes him look too confident.

The practical joker

Jokes and tricks come easily for German and his friends.

Junior teammate Chris Nunez remembers the Trans-Valley League championships at Legion Park in Modesto in October. German cruised to a victory in course-record time -- after stopping to tie his shoe midrace. Later, German, Chris and the rest of the team were waiting for the post-race awards ceremony.

"Everybody was there, and German pantsed me," Chris says. "Everybody laughed, although I didn't think it was too funny."

German took off, teammates in hot pursuit.

"Then he just runs away," sen-ior teammate Octavio Vigil says. "He knows we can't catch him."

Everybody on Riverbank's team has to know where their keys and cell phones are at all times.

"If they're laying around, he's going to grab them," Chris says. "When something's missing, just look at German. If he's got that smirk, I know he's done something with them."

He liked all sports

German and his family lived in and around Watsonville when he was a child. The family moved several times. He at- tended 10 schools before the sixth grade.

"When I was young, I was pretty shy," German says. "But I got pretty good at making friends."