Cross country teams beat the heat in GR

By Julie Newell
Sports/Photo Editor

The LCC cross country teams raced in the 8K Knight-Raider Invitational in Grand Rapids on Friday, Sept. 20.

"I thought we did really well," LCC Coach Jim Robinson said. "This is actually a league jamboree, I guess you would call it, where all the community colleges in our conference are here."

This meet was the first MCCAA league race of the season. Out of all the community colleges and four-year colleges that raced, LCC placed overall seventh for the men's race and sixth for the women's. 

"Cross country runners are tough minded, so they will push themselves even beyond limits sometimes, and your toughest runners are the most prone to do that," Robinson said.

The runners had to be tough minded during this race because the sun was not their friend.

"It was really hot," sophomore runner Claudia Bayro said, "but it was hot for everyone so it's just about who pushed themselves the hardest, and I felt like I pushed myself pretty hard."

Freshman runner Sophia Spalding commented on how the heat affected her during the race.

"At the starting line I was already sweating," Spalding said. "Ten minutes before the race I was sweating and I just got so tired before I ran. It's not good when you're sweating like that because of the heat before you run because then you lose energy."

Sophomore runner Dillan Haviland, who finished fifth in the men's race with a time of 26:29, had a positive outlook on the heat of the race.

"The race was really hot overall; you definitely had to race well in in the shade and then kind of pick it up there … It's a good day to be out in God's presence," Haviland said.

The Stars' cross country teams were scheduled to run at the Loyola Lakefront Invitational in Chicago on Friday, Sept. 27. The next meet will be on Friday, Oct. 4 at Grand Woods Park on Lansing's west side for the Lansing CC Invitational.