Cross country in top form heading into PBC meet

The GCSU men’s and women’s cross country teams ran circles around their competition at the Southern Challenge in Marietta on Oct. 10, hosted by Chattahoochee Tech.

The Bobcat women were split into two teams: GCSU A, finishing with 20 points, and GCSU B, finishing with 75 points, capturing the top two team finishes in the 5K race. The men’s team finished second overall with 60 points in the 8K race. These results gave the Bobcat runners the overall victory in the meet.

Of the eight top individual finishes, the women’s team landed six, with senior Heather Raines leading the pack to the top with a time of 20:56. Following only one second behind, senior Virginia Balkcom took the runner-up slot.

“I have never won a race before in college, so that was really cool,” Raines said. “And Ginny was right behind me, so that was awesome. She was even cheering for me while I was in front of her.”

Following Raines and Balkom, sophomore Karissa Ekstrom finished third at 21:09. Caroline Rentz was not far behind at 21:23, placing fourth.

Junior Tim Cary, finishing first for the Bobcats, placed 10th overall at 30:46. Pacing behind Cary, sophomore Michael Heuett finished 12th overall in 31:01. Fellow sophomore Colin Conroy was the last Bobcat to cross the line at 31:46, good for 17th.

“Well, the course was really so everybody’s time was a little slower, but it was a decent race,” Cary said. “We were able to get a couple of people that have not gotten a chance to race a chance to do so.”

The Bobcat women placed second in the 5K at the SMC Invitational, hosted by St. Michael’s College in Colchester, Vt. on Oct. 16. The men’s team was not able to place because only three Bobcats traveled to the meet. Conroy led the men’s team at 28:46, taking 21st, with Heuett running a personal best to take 22nd at 28:51. Daniel Horseman finished 31st with a time of 29:56.

Raines again finished first for the women’s team, taking ninth place. Balkcom took 13th, finishing at 20:12 and second for GCSU. Ekstrom ran in at 20:22 taking 16th.

Raines zipped through the course in 19:50, good for third all-time at GCSU for the 5K. Raines’s teammate, junior Dani Destiche holds the second-best score from 2007, running at 19:47. Raines was named GCSU Athlete of the Week for the second straight week for her efforts.

The team is training hard for the upcoming meet, the Peach Belt Conference Championships, to be held this Saturday in Pembroke, N.C.

“(The conference championship) is one of the two races we have been training for,” Cary said. “This is the one that really matters as we get into the end of the season.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 23 2009. 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