Girls can make boys do the craziest things. Guys will go to great lengths just to make an impression, like skipping school, driving excessively fast, dying their hair blonde or even , hold onto your hat for this one , joining the track team.

That's right, joining the track team.

Just ask Lowell High (San Francisco, Calif.) senior cross country and track standout Jin Daikoku, the defending San Francisco Section cross country champion and one of the top returning runners in all of Northern California, how his running career got started.

"The main thing that got me to join track was this girl in the seventh grade who ran the mile in 5:45,"says Daikoku, 17, referring to fellow Lowell senior running sensation Michi Hirakawa-Wong, who now just so happens to be his girlfriend. "I actually joined the track team the following season because I wanted to race her. I didn't get a chance to, but I was glad I joined. There she was, this small, little girl and she ran a 5:45. I couldn't believe it. So I wanted to run track and see what it was like. Since then, I've been hooked."

Once Daikoku caught the running bug, his competitive fires took over.

"I think [my competitiveness] is the only thing that's gotten me to where I am now,"says Daikoku, who won the San Francisco Section title in the 1,600-meter race and capped an outstanding junior spring track season by finishing second in the event at the CIF State Track Meet. "If you look at me, out of a group of runners, you couldn't pick me out and say, ?Yeah, that guy can run really fast."

Yet, since entering Lowell in the fall of 1997, the 6-foot, 150-pound harrier has proven that he can run very fast.

	Jin Daikoku is a champion.

During his sophomore season, Daikoku, who now sports a 3.7 GPA, made incredible strides, dropping huge chunks of time off his finishes , both in cross country and track , nearly every time out and making it to the State Track Meet qualifying trials in the 1,600-meter event.

Last fall, Daikoku, who has lost less than a handful of San Francisco Section races in his career, continued his ascent through the cross country ranks. He set a number of course records along the way, capturing the sectional title and registering an impressive finish (16:26) at the state cross country meet.

"A lot of what he did as a sophomore laid the groundwork for his junior year,"says Lowell coach Andy Leong. "He's really matured a lot since his freshman year."

"He's extremely hard-working and disciplined,"says junior teammate Michael Dean of Daikoku, Lowell's team captain. "And now all that hard work and discipline is beginning to pay off for him. "

Daikoku proceeded to march through an improbable spring season on the oval, as well.

He romped his way though the 1,600-meter competition in the San Francisco area , he earned Outstanding Runner of the Meet honors at the Martinez Relays, the Sacramento Meet of Champions and the Bay Area Top 8 , en route to capturing the sectional title in that event. His time of 4:15.13 set a sectional championship meet record, eclipsing the old mark held by Cal-Berkeley standout Bolota Asmerom, who will be competing in the Sydney Olympics for his native country of Eritrea (Africa). At the state meet, Daikoku ran a personal-best time of 4:10.95 in the 1,600, the fastest clocking ever by a San Francisco-area athlete in any section, to finish second in the race.

"The physical tools have always been there,"says Leong. "But it has taken time for him to mentally catch up. With the tools, last year he came together mentally and physically. For me as a coach, we're getting into an area where I've never been before. I've never coached someone of his caliber."

And it seems with what he's accomplished so far, that Daikoku is starting to realize it as well.

"I can't get much competition locally and I don't fear anybody in this state,"says Daikoku confidently. "I don't fear anybody at all. As far as [Northern California] is concerned, I don't know of any guys who can seriously give me any competition, so I have to go to [Southern California] to get a real race.

"I don't consider myself like the rest of the [San Francisco Section] guys from the past,"he adds. "And I hope my rivals don't do that. If they do, that's their mistake and I'll prove them wrong. What I want to do is make a statement. I'm hoping to go to the Foot Locker Nationals. I've never tried to do that before. I think that if I get into good shape that should be no problem.

"I want to go there and have fun and compete against the best guys in the nation."