Cross country lineups set for regionals

By Michael Leek
Sports Editor

The LCC cross country teams arrive at regionals this Friday, Oct. 27 and Stars Head Coach Jim Robinson has high expectations for his favored men’s team.

The regional is being held at Byron Center and hosted by Grand Rapids Community College.

All seven runners have been chosen for both LCC teams. The meet allows 10 runners to participate, but the coaches can only choose seven to score.

The seven runners for the men’s team will be sophomores Michael Dennis, Aaron Bowerman, Liam Elder and Gabriel Phillips; and freshmen Brian Keillor, Evan Suydam and Quaid Schimetz.

On the women’s team sophomores Jana Stiffler, Alyssa Williams, Lexi Wheeler and Reva Lance will run, along with freshmen Reyna Rojas, Jadyn Yonchewski and Lily Kogut.

LCC sophomore Lexi Wheeler and freshman Lily Kogut are shown racing to overtake an opponent during the LCC Invitational at Grand Woods Park earlier this season.  Photo by Kaitlyn Delaney

Robinson said on the men’s side the Stars are the heavy favorites, but there are still some good individuals and competition.

“I’m very confident in our runners,” Robinson said. “They’ve trained hard all year and they are very competitive and very focused. I suspect we’re going to do very well on the men’s side.”

Robinson said on the women’s side the Stars are not the favorites, but they do have a chance to win.

“I think if we run our best race we have a chance, but going in I definitely say St. Clair is the favorite,” Robinson said. “If Jana (Stiffler) has her best day she has a chance (to win) and the training has been geared to running our best at this race.”

Yonchewski is running in regionals as a freshman. She said it feels really good but scary.

“It is something I never expected for myself,” Yonchewski said. “Mentally I am very nervous, but I am going into it with a positive attitude and telling myself that I know the course.”

Phillips said he is going over the race in his head to prepare, and physically focus on recovery.

“As a team, we are still keeping high intensity in our workouts, so my legs are pretty tired,” Phillips said. “Recovery includes getting lots of sleep and eating well.”

Leading up to regionals, Robinson said his athletes have been focusing specifically on one thing.

“Just get stronger,” he said. “This is a developmental sport and we’ve been working to get stronger all year long.”