Bobcat harriers off to a running start in 2007

     Saturday marked the beginning of the 2007 cross-country season as the Bobcat women harriers competed in the Blue and White Alumni meet hosted by Peach Belt Conference  rival Augusta State University.
    Freshman Dani Destiche made the most of her GCSU debut, finishing second overall in the race with a time of 19:47, only 15 seconds behind race winner, Kristyn Holley of ASU. Destiche’s time was only three seconds off the all time GCSU mark that Bethany Loushine set in 2002.
    “The women got started last weekend and ran really well,” Head Coach Joe Samprone said. “The men really get going this weekend as we head up to Dartmouth.”
    The Bobcat men will compete in the Dartmouth College Invitational in Hanover, N.H., on Saturday, Sept. 8.
    “We’re definitely looking forward to it,” Senior Rich Dobson said. “We have been to New England a couple times since I have been at college. We went to Vermont two years ago, which was really nice. I’m excited to go back.”
     Last season the men traveled to Minneapolis, Minn., and competed in the Roy Griak Invitational. The team finished 42 of 52 teams, they look to do better in Vermont this year.
    “The guys have good speed returning,” Samprone said. “The competition will be tough, this weekend should gear them up.”
    Samprone said that starting the season against a tough ASU team is a good indication of where they stand.
    “Augusta had five of the top six finishers last weekend,” Samprone said. “They finished first and third through fifth. They added some good runners to a strong team.”
    Besides Destiche’s strong showing, the Bobcats had good showings from senior Jan Keeton, who finished seventh by posting a time of 20:28, and by Sophomore Bonnie Ueltzen who finished in 20:49, good enough for eighth place.
    “The competition will be stiff for both teams,” Samprone said. “The guys finished second to Columbus (State University) last year, they had three good freshmen last year and a good redshirt runner. Clayton should be interesting too,
they have an all new men’s team so we’ll see how we stack up.”   
    The Bobcat women take the week off and have their next competition on Saturday, Sept. 15 at the Georgia State Invitational.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 6 2007. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry