LCC Starts their Cross Country Season with Strong Performances
The women's and men's cross country teams have been putting in their work this summer. It certainly showed as they had strong performances in their first meet of the year hosted by Olivet on Friday. Both teams ran a 5k that began on a golf course the first mile, into a loop in the woods for the second mile, and back onto the golf course to finish up. There was light wind and a 60-degree evening which made for great distance running weather. The meet was unscored so no team scores were taken.
The women competed first against teams from Olivet, Adrian, and St. Mary's. LCC had a top two punch of Kirsten McGahan in 1st place (18:50) and Ashley Lindeman in 2nd (19:01). Finishing 8th overall and 3rd for the team was Taylor Ward (20:28). To round out LCC's top 7 was a pack of 4 royal blue runners all running within 6 seconds of each other (20:30 to 20:36). That pack placed 10th through 13th place overall and consisted in respective order of Emma Distelrath, Emily Wohlfert, Emma Fifarek, and Ericka Lathrop. Lansing had 8 other runners compete in the meet and get off to a great start as well.
The men had 17 runners compete against a field which included Olivet, Adrian, and Red Cedar Running Club. 4 of LCC's runners started off in the lead pack along with eventual winner from Olivet College, Bruce Baker (15:32). Blake Watson put on the closest chase finishing only 2 seconds behind in 2nd place (15:34). Shawn Bell, Jacob Ferguson, and Alex McCormick took the next 3 spots finishing 3rd through 5th place (16:00, 16:14, and 16:19). The 5th LCC runner was Deion Feldpausch coming back from knee surgery last spring to finish just a few places back in 8th (16:35). To round out LCC's top 7 in 16:53 and 16:55 were Jack Youngblood and Max Pasche. There were many other Lansing Stars not too far behind, which will bode extremely well ensuring depth for the team in scoring meets.
Next week is an off week from competition, which gives the team an opportunity to push their training. The following week they step up to compete in a huge field of teams from all divisions at Forest Akers golf course in East Lansing on Friday, September 15th. Michigan State hosts the meet.