Harriers split up for pair of meets

By Michael Leek
Sports Editor

The LCC cross country teams had an unusual weekend of running, splitting the squads and attending a pair of meets on Friday, Sept. 29, and Saturday, Sept. 30.

The Stars ran at the St. Clair Invitational and the Louisville, Ky. XC Classic.

At St. Clair, the men’s team placed third, scoring 104 points in wet conditions. Southwestern Michigan placed second with 73 points and Rochester won the meet, scoring 29 points.

Aaron Bowerman finished seventh for the Stars, finishing the 8K race in a time of 28:00.50. Nate March and Julian Edwards followed, finishing 19th and 22nd for LCC.

Bowerman was coming off some nagging injuries and said it was different running without the whole team there.

“Almost like it was a little bit more weight on our shoulders because it was still a conference meet and we were trying to score well,” Bowerman said.

The women who represented LCC at the St. Clair classic were actually members of the LCC basketball team. The group placed ninth in the 5K race with 232 points. Rochester also won this meet with 53 points.

At the Louisville XC Classic, the men's team placed 24th out of 46 schools and finished with a score of 592. University of the Cumberlands won the race with a score of 133.

Michael Dennis ran the best time for the Stars at 25:16.4, placing 24th in the 8K race. LCC’s Gabriel Phillips followed with a time of 25:43.1, placing 59th.

The women's team placed 35th out of 50 schools in Kentucky with a score of 918 in a 5K race. Trine University won the race with a score of 179 points.

Jana Stiffler placed 32nd, running a time of 19:43.4. The next runner for LCC was Alyssa Williams with a time of 21:42.4, placing 177th.

The Louisville XC Classic is three races: the gold race, the blue race and the silver race. The men's team raced in the blue and the women's team raced in the silver.

Coach Jim Robinson was pleased with how all the teams ran, especially considering how big the Louisville Classic was.

“When you’re in a race that big there’s pushing and shoving, and whenever you want to pass someone you’ve got to use extra energy,” Robinson said. “In spite of that, we still had some good times.”

Stiffler explained how the weather affected the team during the Louisville race.

“Running at the peak heat of the day definitely takes a toll on you both physically and mentally,” Stiffler said. “Seeing people being carried off the course who are from that area and used to the heat just testifies how brutal it was.”

The races in Louisville had over 400 men and women. Stiffler said so many people can be intimidating to run against, but she had a strategy going into it.

“In a race with that many runners it is imperative to get out fast so you don’t get boxed in by all the people,” Stiffler said. “It certainly adds a challenge, but it also makes the course go by so much faster and keeps you on your toes.”

The Stars next meets will be Saturday, Oct. 14, when the squad will split up again for the Ancilla Invite and Muskegon Invitational.

Following that will be the Regional Championship on Friday, Oct. 27 at Byron Center.