ByKathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Matt Stevens is on the run to defend his title
in tomorrow's state cross-country championship.

The shadow his 5-foot-7, 140-pound frame casts across the starting line is a long one. Within it, many a rival has psychologically crumbled before the gun has gone off.

Intimidation goes with winning 26 cross- country races in a row.

Now, on the eve of his chance to become the first three-time state champion in Hawaii boys' cross country, almost no one dares to bet against him.

There have been eight other runners who've won the state meet twice since it began in 1965.

But forget all that record stuff and get inside Stevens' head (the one that generates a 4.0 grade point average).

He's not as relaxed as one might think he is about tomorrow morning's 32nd Hawaii High School Athletic Association Cross Country Championships at the Hawaii Preparatory Academy on the Big Island.

"I wonder sometimes if I'm losing my mental edge because I've won so many races by big margins," he said last night.

"I do have confidence but I still have a lot of doubts about races - especially when California teams come into town or the state meet is due. I haven't had to push myself, so I wonder if I'm going to push myself through the pain threshold in a state meet."

Stevens has responded well to pressure.

When Dana Hills, a top California prep program, competed against his Pac-Five team here in 1994 and this year, Stevens whipped the field both times.

Stevens said he has been shaken from any degree of complacency about this race by a recent Big Island newspaper quote from one of his top rivals.

Waiakea's Jerin Kelly, the Big Island Interscholastic Federation champion, was quoted as saying he plans to do whatever it takes to beat Stevens.

"I can't take anything for granted because I know some guys are coming after me to knock me off," Stevens said.

Stevens fell victim to one of those last spring when he was defending his state 3,200-meter track championship.

"Shawn Gallup of Mililani, who'd never broken 10 minutes before, beat me and set a PR (personal record) by about 20 seconds," he said.

"That's why I can't take anyone for granted. His (Kelly's) saying that helps bring things into focus for me."

Stevens began his own breakthrough in cross country at the age of 14.

With his patented long stride, he surged into third place in the 1993 state meet at Hawaii Prep.

The next time Stevens set foot on grass, he was untouchable and his invisibility ended.

Two of the two-time HHSAA state meet winners, former U.S. 5,000-meter record holder and Olympian Duncan Macdonald (1965, 1966) and four-time steeplechase Olympian Henry Marsh (1970, 1971), said that what Stevens has done is remarkable.

"For a boy to win the state meet as a sophomore is surprising because cross country is a sport in which you develop strength with age," said Marsh.

"It's a relatively long race for a high school kid," said Macdonald, who noted that he and Marsh ran only two-mile courses while Stevens has always competed at three miles.

"I love watching him run," said Macdonald, whose daughter, Eri, won the girls' state meet last year as a freshman.

"He puts everything into it and he's a fast guy with fluid style. I think he's going to have a real good collegiate cross-country career."

Macdonald said it will be a long time before anyone equals Stevens' record if he gets his third win tomorrow.

Stevens won his third straight Interscholastic League of Honolulu title last weekend in adverse conditions - a slow and muddy course at Mid-Pacific Institute.

The weather at HPA is likely to be blustery and chilly.

Stevens, who is a cross-country purist, is delighted.

"Good - that's what cross country is all about - cold, snow, rain and wind," he said with a laugh.