Nearly nine months ago, on the picture-perfect campus of Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, Calif., Sara Bei collapsed to the ground and sobbed uncontrollably. Friends and family members tried to console the teen as other cross country runners celebrated around her, but Bei's tears were endless.

One year earlier, the then-sophomore at Montgomery High in Santa Rosa, Calif., had owned that campus. She was the queen of the course, surprising virtually everyone in attendance by winning the Foot Locker Cross Country West Regional championship and earning a trip to Orlando, Fla., where she eventually captured third place in the national meet with a time of 17:43.4.

But on Dec. 4, 1999, past accomplishments meant little. The only thing Sara Bei knew as tears flowed from her puffy red eyes was that she just finished the West Regional race in 10th place, two spots from re-qualifying for nationals.

"I have never felt so bad in my entire life," says Bei, 17. "I [felt] as though the world had come to an end."

A lot has changed since that eventful afternoon.

Today, Bei looks upon last year's regional race as an invaluable learning experience, and says she intends to prove this fall just how invaluable.

"I have two goals this year," says Bei, the 1999 SchoolSports.com Bay area Cross Country Runner of the Year. "I want to win state and I want to win nationals. That's it."

If Bei can achieve goal No. 1, it would be an unprecedented accomplishment in the Golden State, as no cross country runner has ever won the California Interscholastic Federation championship four years in a row.

"It would be, like, history," says Bei, who captured the Division 2 title last fall with a time of 17:25 and the Division 3 championships in 1997 and '98 with times of 19:09 and 17:06, respectively. "As for nationals, I just want to get there. I don't care where I finish at the West Regionals this year, just as long as I qualify."

According to Shannon Sweeney, a first-year volunteer coach at Montgomery High, it's a change in attitude that will hopefully pay dividends.

"This is basic training," says Sweeney, a physical education and sports medicine teacher at Montgomery who was brought in by head coach Larry Meredith to help out with his girls' cross country team. "For Sara, in years past, she has trained the same way; she would go hard year-round. I want her to run her hardest in December for nationals.

"We're bringing her along slower, and it's going to be hard for her," adds Sweeney, who was an All-American in the 800 at Cal-Poly in 1990. "Some of her competition will be ready to go at first, and she may lose some races, but this will pay off in the long run."

In the short-term, Bei is pondering where she wants to attend college next fall. The highly religious teen, who spent a month this summer in Holland with a group called "Athletes of Good News," won the training/bible study vacation after winning the 1999 All-American Christian Athlete Award and says she has been contacted by the likes of Stanford, Oregon, UCLA, Boston College and Arkansas, but is looking into smaller Christian schools in Southern California, as well. She's also trying to take it easy, which is something the 5-foot-3, 110-pound speedster is pretty unaccustomed to.

To fill the time in which she would normally be training at a break-neck pace, Bei will return to her role as the class historian on the Montgomery High student council, and is looking to start a Santa Rosa chapter for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

"I think it makes school fun when you're involved in activities," says Bei, a member of Montgomery's indoor and outdoor track teams. "There's, like, 180 days in a school year. Being involved brightens your week and makes it all bearable."

To be sure, Sara Bei has grown up a lot since last December, when her world seemed quite unbearable. She has a new game plan, a new perspective on both life and running, and says she intends to reap the benefit come the end of the 2000 fall season.

"I'll hopefully buy into what my coach is telling me," says Bei of taking it easy in September and October. "I haven't improved much since my sophomore year; I think I've been in a little rut. So, hopefully, this will get me to the next level."

A level no other scholastic runner in the state of California has ever reached.