The Collegian

Issue date: 9/17/09 Section: Sports

The cross-country teams started the season off with a little bit of fun at the Blue/White meet last Friday. The meet was an inter-squad race that gave the runners a chance to prepare for real competition in a fairly relaxed atmosphere. From top to bottom, the teams will be competitive this season.

"There are some good things going on right now with the depth of the team," head coach Bill Lundberg said.

The women greatly enjoyed creating their uniforms, senior Erin Cvengros said. They divided into teams based on how tan they were. The paler team dressed as vampires, while the tan team dressed as beach bums.

The men switched it up a bit, dividing teams based on on-campus/off-campus living status. The vampires, who wore sparkly lotion and red lipstick to add to the realism, and the on-campus men, won their respective races.

Despite the fun atmosphere, the meet was still all business in many ways.

"The purpose is to get into racing mode," Cvengros said. We just wanted to get a race under our belts so it felt comfortable going into next week."

Sophomore Melissa TenKate was the individual winner of the women's race with a time of 19:12 for the 5-kilometer, and Cvengros said that she looked to be in good shape.

Timothy Howse, a senior, was the men's individual winner with a time of 20:42 for four miles.

"Both races had the lead runner separated from the pack," Lundberg said. "Timothy Howse ran really strong and broke away. But on each side of the program, a lot of the good runners were right behind them."

Senior Britton Deuel said the inter-squad race was a good "stepping stone" but added the whole team has a lot of work to do this season. In general, both teams believe they need to be better when the time comes to actually race. Deuel said some of the men struggled with illnesses going around the team.

Times were slower than hoped for, although a hard week of training and a course that felt too long may have been major factors, according to seniors Shawn McKinstry and Derek Gilmore.

Another challenge the teams are facing is injuries. Sophomore All-American Tim Jagielski is still dealing with an inflamed tendon in his foot. He plans to take the next two weeks off from running in hopes that it will heal.

Sophomore Amanda Putt is also dealing with an injury, but she too will hopefully be healthy within the next couple of weeks, Cvengros said.

Those couple of weeks includes the first actual competition at Kenosha, Wis., Sept.19, a meet Jagielski will be missing.
Kenosha, the site of this year's regionals, is one of the few courses actually designed for cross-country in the U.S., Deuel said.

It's a very tough course, pretty hilly, Deuel said, but he believes the team can handle it.

"We're expecting performances to definitely be better," he said.

The women will start their 5-k run at 12:00 p.m. The men will start their 8-kilometer run at 12:45 p.m.

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