Lion Hearts at VU

The culmination of the season came for Vanguard University cross

country runners Tony Magana and Sarah Hall last week in the NAIA

Region II Championships at Woodward Park in Fresno.

Magana and Hall, who are both Estancia High and Orange Coast

College products, delivered their best races of the season. Magana,

who has been dealing with stomach pains recently, ignored the

sideaches as best he could and finished fifth in 25:43 to qualify for

the NAIA Championships, Nov. 23 at the University of

Wisconsin-Parkside.

Hall also qualified for the NAIA meet, recording a personal-record

18:46, to finish fourth. Last year she finished 51st (20:33) in the

same race. Her performance not only surprised her coaches and

competition, it also surprised Hall.

“I was shocked,” she said. “I didn’t think I would get fourth,

ever. I wasn’t feeling real well that day. I was just hoping to

finish in the top 12. In my dreams I thought I could get 12th I never

thought fourth.”

It’s safe to say, Hall is coming into her own. After being just an

average runner for most of her life, she has burst onto the scene.

“She went from average to finishing among the elite, that’s the

credit to the work she has put in,” Wilkins said. “We saw this type

of race coming, but it didn’t happen until last week. Last year if

you were to ask me if Sarah would be running in the nationals, I

would say ‘no,’ but she has proved me wrong.”

Running has always been a part of Hall’s life. When she was nine

she used to watch and pretend to train with her mother, Sherri, who

at age 36 went back to school and competed for Wilkins at Vanguard,

which was Southern California College at the time.

Sherri Hall-Curl was an NAIA All-American in cross country and

track and field (10,000 meters) in the late ‘80s. She’s been excited

for Sarah, who has experienced adversity before finding success at

Vanguard.

In the past, Sarah suffered from colon spasms during races, her

mother said. Sarah saw a variety of doctors and tried different

medicine to find a cure. She ran one year at OCC and then quit. She

moved to Europe and rekindled her attraction to running. Now, Sarah

uses acupuncture therapy, which minimizes the stomach pains.

Magana has also been experiencing pain in his stomach area. In

reality, Magana is actually capable of running a better race than the

one he completed last week, when he put aside his pain.

“I had the pain real bad in the conference meet,” Magana said. “ I

didn’t perform the way I could. I probably could have been third or

fourth. There was the same pain in the regional meet, but I had to go

through it. The team needed every possible point it could get, so I

couldn’t give up.”

Magana said he will use the same mentality for the NAIA meet.

* The Vanguard men’s basketball team’s game against Westminster

College Saturday night, will feature homecoming festivities during

halftime. This year the Lions will honor their, “Young Alumni,” the

students from the 1990s who excelled in academics and other

activities at the school. Sherri Hall-Curl and Mattias Johanssen will

be two among the seven who will be honored. The game starts at 7:30

p.m. at The Pit.

In addition to her prowess in athletics, Sherri Hall-Curl has been

a volunteer in a 12-step counseling program at Newport Mesa Christian

Center. For eight years, she was an inmate counselor in the County of

Orange Prison System and stepped into a management position there in

2001, when she also established her own counseling practice.

Johansson was nationally ranked, all conference and was the No. 1

tennis player for the Lions from 1994-1996 with a 41-18 record. After college, he came back to be the head coach of the men’s and women’s

tennis teams at Vanguard. His coaching record at Vanguard has been

87-43 for the men, and 22-19 for the women. Johansson, who was GSAC

Coach of the Year in 1999, is currently the Vice President of the

NAIA Tennis Coaches Association, and he continues to coach junior

teams and play at professional tennis events.