The Observer, September 26, 2008
Volume XLI, Issue 5
Cross Country: Where are we now? Teams find out against ranked opponents
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The women's cross country team placed second and the men's team placed fourth on Saturday at Calvin College's Knight Invitational in an early season barometer for the Spartans.
The men, ranked 16th in Div. III, ran against three teams rated above them: second-ranked Calvin, ninth-ranked Ohio Northern, and 12th ranked UW Oshkosh. Those were the three teams they finished behind on Saturday. In cross country, meets are scored by adding up the places of a team's top five finishers.
Calvin ran away with the meet, accumulating only 24 points. The second through fifth place grouping was much tighter. Oshkosh tallied 90 points, Ohio Northern finished with 97, Case with 98, and fifth place Aquinas College accumulated 99. Eleven teams competed on the men's side.
"Calvin is impossible to stop unless their three top runners fall down," said cross country coach Kathy Lanese.
That meant that the Spartans concentrated on beating Ohio Northern, who, along with Case and Calvin, is in the Great Lakes region. The top two teams at the regional meet in November get an automatic qualification to nationals.
One factor that will improve between now and November is the health of the men's best runner, Dominic Smith, who broke his right elbow in a bicycle accident and missed a week of practice. Smith finished ninth overall (25:52).
"Dom was not at his best this week. I thought he looked a little lopey," said Lanese.
"It was hot. I felt alright. I was worried about my arm," said Smith, who is close to full extension on the injured arm.
Despite being beaten by a point by Ohio Northern, the Spartans held a two- second advantage in the average time of their top five, 26:12 to 26:14. The Case men ran conservatively in the 8k race to focus on pack running. The Spartans finished with 34-second difference between their first and fifth-place runners. Anything under 45 seconds is considered ideal.
The men's key runner, according to Lanese, was their fifth-place runner, senior Josh Ward, who was 28th overall. "He made the difference for the team this week," she said.
"Well, we've got an incredibly deep team this year, so it seems that every week there's someone there to step it up and 'make the difference' for the team," said Ward. "I'm just glad it was me this week, and hopefully we can all step it up a bit each week."
The women's team, currently ranked 10th in Div. III, finished behind only host Calvin. Ten teams competed in the 5k. Calvin accumulated 33 points to Case's 58, a bigger point spread than Lanese wanted. "[Calvin] had us beat," she said.
The problem was the 59-second gap between the first and fifth spots.
"We really need to pull that fifth runner up," said Lanese.
Part of the problem was that Natalia Cabrera was out with tendinitis in her foot, limiting the women's depth. The freshman took Case's sixth spot at the Case-hosted Sudeck Classic three weeks ago.
Co-captains Kristen Bowhers and Britta Kumley finished eighth and ninth overall and second and third respectively for the Spartans. Both set personal bests with times of 18:25 on Calvin's Grand Rapids, Mich. course.
The Spartan's best run at Calvin came from an unexpected source: sophomore Justine Jeroski, who finished sixth overall with a time of 18:13. She finished behind Bowhers and Kumley at the Sudeck Classic. "Justine had a superb race," said Lanese. "She was very aggressive from start to finish."
At last year's Knight Invitational, the women's team took second and the men's team took fifth. Both teams are back in action tomorrow at Otterbein College.
