A less known "American" finisher at the WEC

["Michael K. Maul" <mmaul@galaxy.nsc.com>]

I thought I would mention that there was another less known finisher
at the WEC last week from the US. But it was a very significant 
achievement for her even though not as celebrated as the US team.
She finished 54 of the 78 finishers in a start of 175.

54 ROM   Laura Stoicescu   Wave  22:16:17  14:01:17

times are time of finish  10:16 PM and ride time

The rider is Laura Stoicescu of Houston, TX. She is of Romanian 
ancestry and decided to try to represent Romania in the ride.
She tried to do this at Kansas in 1996 but was not able to get
it to come together in time.  She is an AERC CT region rider who was 
a junior just 3 years ago. It's a really fantastic achievement
for her.

Mike Maul
W/CT Region
Sunnyvale/Houston

Her words below are:

I'll tell the whole story a bit later, but the majority of it is. I went
ahead and asked as many people what I could do to ride and how I could
enter the race, with the Romania equestrian federation that I visited last
summer's full support behind me. I contacted a nice man, Bill Smith from
England and he offered me Sheik Mohammed's horse named Wave. Wave is a 9
year old Anglo Arab that just came from Australia about 3 weeks before the
ride. Late last week I asked Darolyn  if she wanted to come and bring some
friends who would like to come and would be helpful as a pit crew. The list
made it as 
Laura Stoicescu -rider
Darolyn Butler -Chief D' Equip
Kirk Caudal-groom
Ann Pheiffer-groom
Sharon Seaare-
Angaia Stoicescu-mom
and we did a great job for the tough competition and the fact that we
finished this race means we did our best. 

Laura
laura stoicesscu <lstoicescu@earthlink.net>