{"id":8053,"date":"2020-05-09T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-09T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maderatribustg.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=8053"},"modified":"2026-05-13T18:27:56","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:27:56","slug":"ford-running-to-csu-fullerton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/ford-running-to-csu-fullerton\/","title":{"rendered":"Ford running to CSU Fullerton"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Two-time Div. II Central Section cross country champion Unique Ford is through tormenting the Central Valley. Instead she will try to do put Big West Conference foes in her rear-view mirror running at CSU Fullerton.<\/p>

\u201cI just liked their campus and environment,\u201d Ford said. \u201cI feel like I can grow there.\u201d<\/p>

Ford is one of the more accomplished runners to come through Madera, following in the historic footsteps on one of the better cross country programs in the section.<\/p>

She won two straight Div. II individual championships, the most recent by 12 seconds. She also placed sixth in the CIF State Championships while beating her personal best time by more than 30 seconds.<\/p>

In addition, she won the last three CMAC championships and led the Coyotes to two straight CMAC championships. She won last year\u2019s CMAC championships by almost 30 seconds.<\/p>

\u201cI am so proud of myself,\u201d she said. \u201cI came a long way. People know me as this person, but I showed them wrong. I\u2019m not that type of person anymore. It feels awesome to be considered one of the best.<\/p>

\u201cThe thing that keeps me pushing is the way my mindset is. Even though no one is by me, I need to push, as a runner, to better myself. I really wanted to hit my personal records. That really kept me going.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cOne of the reasons I came back was for the two girls (Unique and Linda),\u201d said Madera Coyotes cross country coach Russ Stanford. \u201cIf you look at their four years, they have had three different coaches. With that talent the girls had, I felt like they were ripped off. I came back to coach them and put things back together.\u201d<\/p>

Ford credits Stanford into getting her on the right track and narrow down her collegiate options.<\/p>

\u201cHe\u2019s been a big help,\u201d she said. \u201cHe helped narrowed down my options. He\u2019s been a good coach for me.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cShe was interested in running and wanting to be good, but nobody was tapping her potential,\u201d Stanford said. \u201cI wanted to make her work harder than she thinks she can. Once she tasted how good she could be, that was the difference, Towards the end of last year, it surprised her a bit. It goes down to her soul and what she wanted to do. This year, we told her to run how she could. She impressed everybody out there. Running Valley in track woke everybody up and that was part of the things that told her if she concentrated on what she was doing, she could be a top-notch runner in the area. That\u2019s what happened.\u201d<\/p>

Ford said the decision was between CSU Northridge, UC Riverside and Fullerton.<\/p>

\u201cI got that feeling that I can be there and start my life there,\u201d she said of her Fullerton choice.<\/p>

Her school selections weren\u2019t by accident. She wanted to attend a school within the state.<\/p>

\u201cI just didn\u2019t want to be that far from my family,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s a cool distance and far enough for me.\u201d<\/p>

Ford actually signed her National Letter of Intent a few months ago, but is ready for the new beginnings.<\/p>

\u201cI felt really accomplished and felt like my hard work has paid off,\u201d she said. \u201cThe thing that motivates me is the feeling that running gives me. It makes me feel good about myself. It releases a lot of stress.\u201d<\/p>

Even now, Ford, although bored, is still doing her workouts.<\/p>

\u201cRight now, I\u2019m doing long runs like about 50 minutes each day. It\u2019s about six or seven miles,\u201d she said.<\/p>

This year, Ford had a partner in her runs and competitions \u2014 Linda Perez, who signed with Minot University.<\/p>

\u201cIt helped me a lot to have Linda with me,\u201d Ford said. \u201cEspecially being able to run with the boys with Linda pushed me to run faster. It made me a better runner, overall.\u201d<\/p>

Ford, who will run both cross country and track at Fullerton, was upset about her track season getting derailed.<\/p>

\u201cI was really upset track was canceled,\u201d she said. \u201cI had a lot of personal records that I wanted to hit that I wasn\u2019t able to. The goal this year was to break the school\u2019s mile record. I was four seconds away last year.\u201d<\/p>

Ford intends to become a nurse after graduation. She will also be joined at Fullerton by softball player Valerie Ornelas.<\/p>

\u201cWe have talked about going to school together,\u201d Ford said. \u201cWe might even room together. I won\u2019t be alone and will have someone there to talk to.\u201d<\/p>

Ford is looking forward to beginning the next chapter in her life and her CMAC opposing coaches are happy to see her out of the league.<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m excited,\u201d she said. \u201cHopefully, I\u2019ll evolve as a runner over there and break some records.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two-time Div. II Central Section cross country champion Unique Ford is through tormenting the Central Valley. Instead she will try to do put Big West Conference foes in her rear-view mirror running at CSU Fullerton. \u201cI just liked their campus and environment,\u201d Ford said. \u201cI feel like I can grow there.\u201d Ford is one of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":41212,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_angie_page":false,"page_builder":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[50],"class_list":["post-8053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-schools"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}