Cross
Country Completes Season at Regionals
by Brad White
Junior,
Laura Feeney, paced all conference runners in the Midwest Regional
Championships by placing eighth in the race and qualifying for nationals.
The mens and womens cross-country teams competed in
the Great Lakes Regional meet this past weekend, with Kalamazoo
College in Kalamazoo, Michigan hosting the meet. Division three
teams from Ohio, Indiana and Michigan participated in the meet.
The top individual finishers and highest-placing teams at regionals
go on to compete in nationals.
On the womens side there were a total of 27 schools represented.
The Yeowomen finished 12th overall. Coach Roger Laushman was very
proud of his teams finish. This was an excellent finish,
considering the team was without junior co-captain Lori Tuchfeld,
who
suffered a broken bone in her left foot while finishing eighth at
the conference championships, said Laushman.
All seven runners that the women brought had season-best performances.
Five clocked in with lifetime best finishes. Among those who ran
lifetime bests was co-captain Feeney, of Staatsburg, New York, who
finished eighth out of 202 total runners. Feeney finished with a
time of 18:35, almost a minute better than the time she ran at the
conference meet. Feeney, who finished third in the conference meet,
beat all other North Coast Athletic Conference runners at
regionals.
Feeneys eighth place finish earned her a spot in the division
three national meet, which will be held at Augustana College in
Rock Island, Ill. Feeney is the first womens runner to qualify
for nationals since Shannon Fox accomplished the feat in 1996. That
year nationals were also held at Augustana College.
Laushman praised Feeneys work ethic, crediting much of her
success with an intensive 24 weeks of training and her resolve to
win. All of Feeneys hard work finally culminated at Kalamazoo.
It was very exciting to watch her progress throughout the
race as she
moved into the pack of the top 10 runners and held form to the finish,
Laushman said.
Other top finishers for the Yeowomen included sophomore Julia Goeke,
junior co-captain Kyle McKenzie, first-year Shannon Morris, and
sophomore Abby Morris. Next years season looks very promising
for the Yeowomen who return all of their conference runners and
expect Lori Tuchfeld to recover from her injury.
The Yeomen finished a respectable 14th place at the regional meet.
There were a total of 31 teams competing in the event. For the first
time in a while the team felt that they were completely healthy
going into a meet. All the men were planning on putting in as much
effort as they could into the regional meet in hopes of qualifying
for nationals.
The Yeomen were led by Captain Jon Rogers, a fifth-year from Potomac,
Maryland, who finished in 39th place of 210 runners with a time
of 26:51. Ryan McGinnis, a first-year from Walnut Creek, California,
finished in 48th place with a time of 27:02 and Adam Greeney, a
sophomore from Amherst, Massachusetts, finished in 60th place in
a time of 27:19. Sophomore Alex Scally had a somewhat disappointing
performance due to a foot injury in the race. Scallys injury
makes the Yeomens performance even more outstanding.
The team loses both Rogers and senior Hans Peterson to graduation;
however, the team is keeping a strong nucleus of young runners who
are poised to challenge for a conference championship next season.
NCAC Newcomer of the Year, McGinnis, is looking forward to another
shot at nationals next season.
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