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By Todd Jacobson and Jose Alfredo Flores
Special to The Washington Post
Monday, November 27, 2000; Page D09

When Landon's Jack Adrian was in eighth grade, he won the freshman race at the Georgetown Prep Classic and it looked as if he was on the verge of a promising high school cross-country career. But just as suddenly as he burst onto the scene, he was quickly out of it, as a growth spurt changed his stride and threw off his training.

Adrian grew 12 inches in three years; he stopped sprouting as a junior. Now a senior, the 6-foot runner once again has found his stride and he turned in the best performance among Maryland runners at Saturday's Foot Locker Northeast Regional boys seeded race at Van Cortlandt Park in New York.

Adrian finished 20th on the three-mile course in 16 minutes 3.2 seconds, just ahead of Great Mills senior Will Christian (21st, 16:03.4).

After spending most of the race in sixth place, Georgetown Day junior Ben Stern finished 29th (16:07.5). In the girls seeded race, Quince Orchard junior Karen Pulliam finished 17th in 18:52. The top eight boys and girls finishers qualified for the Foot Locker national championship, to be held Dec. 9 in Orlando.

Adrian's finish may have been the most impressive among local runners, however. By his own accord, Adrian was an average runner for his first three years at Landon.

"It was kind of hard on me," Adrian said. "I was improving but not by that much. I was really psyched about this year. I really didn't expect anything, but I was going to keep going at it and the dedication finally came through, I guess."

Adrian finished fourth at the Interstate Athletic Conference championship meet last year, and didn't really make an impact until midway through this season, when he won the small schools race at the Salesianum (Del.) Invitational. He went on to win the IAC title this year and finished second at the Mid-Atlantic Private Schools Invitational in early November. He had hoped to qualify for the national meet on Saturday, but got caught behind a large pack of runners.

Stern, a junior, led a chase pack and was in sixth place before the pace caught up with him.

"My plan was to lead the chase pack and win that and sneak into the top eight," Stern said. "But the first mile was way too fast--sadistically fast--and it caught up with me, and I got passed by like 15 guys at the end."

Only two area runners qualified for nationals on Saturday: South Lakes senior Alan Webb and Handley junior Bobby Lockhart. They finished one-two at the Foot Locker South Region championship meet in Charlotte.

A Sweet Home

The basketball teams at Washington International finally have a place to call home. On Wednesday, the Washington International girls will host Takoma Academy at 6:30 p.m. in the first basketball game played at the school's new Arts and Athletics Center, which opened this summer. The 34-year-old private school in Northwest Washington had never had an on-campus gymnasium before this year.

"There will be no more commuting for us," girls basketball coach Angel Wrublik said. "We're finally going to have home-field advantage. That's going to be something new to the players on this team."

The gym has bleacher seating and holds 260 people. The lobby features 100 miniature flags, representing the home countries of the school's diverse student body. Besides a basketball court, the four-story building has a computer room, art and music classrooms, a stage, a weight room, showers and locker rooms.

Washington International's previous "home" court was at Mackin gym near Dupont Circle. The heating didn't work well and the toilet stalls had no doors. The Red Devils also used to practice at an old Takoma Park church with bent rims, no heating, poor lighting and dead spots on the floor. And sometimes, they had to practice outdoors.

"It's definitely worth the wait," said sophomore guard Tina Francois, Washington International's leading scorer last year with 20 points per game. "Traveling cut into our practice time. Now that we don't have to worry about traveling, this program can only improve."