ô
Pride and joy of his race, Jim Myers
õ
     Some day, Chris Schurz might run away from everyone to all
the glories the world can grant to speed and grace.  Some day.
     Today, Schurz is alone, a 17-year-old cross country runner
who has sped so far ahead of his peers that few who revere his
speed and grace dare guess how far his talents will take him. 
Schurz, a senior at Mesa's Westwood High, is the only three-time
state cross country champion in Arizona history.
     By most estimations, Schurz--who friends and family call
Chuckie--runs for something more than a school, a community, a
state.  He lives in the Salt River Indian Community, a
reservation northeast of Phoenix, next to Scottsdale and Mesa. 
His mother is Sioux; his father, Pima.
     The family says word there's a young runner--maybe even a
future national or Olympic champion, and Indian champion--has
reached Indian communities across the USA.
     "Yes, people get excited," says his mother, Valerie.  "They
say, 'He's a Sioux boy, a Pima boy.'"