Great Day to run in Louisville
It was a gorgeous day in Louisville, Kentucky where the men's and women's Cross Country teams competed against a variety of NCAA Division 1, 2, 3, NAIA, and Community College teams in the Blue Division, which was then broken down further into separate scoring categories. This more competitive division seeding is a hats off compliment to Lansing CC as they have showed strength against larger school teams.
The lead men's pack was led by Blake Watson in 26:05 for 28th place in the All Other Division (NAIA, NCAA D3, and NJCAA) category. Watson was followed by Alex McCormick in 26:14 for 37th and closely behind was Shawn Bell in 26:17 for 40th place. The next scorer was Jacob Ferguson in 101st place with 27:23. The front top pack showed strength and poise moving up throughout the race against a stacked field. Deion Feldpausch rounded out the scorers with a time of 27:37 for 122nd place. Runners Max Pasche and Alan Baird finished up with a 27:45 and 28:02 respectively in the 6th and 7th position for the stars. The men scored 319 points as a team in their division for a 12th place team finish among the NAIA, NCAA D3, and NJCAA teams that competed in the Blue Divison.
The women were led by Ashley Lindeman in a time of 18:36 for 10th place in the All Other Division (NAIA, NCAA D3, and NJCAA) category. The next scorer was Kirsten McGahan in 29th place with a time of 19:16. Emma Fifarek in 20:17 placed 94th, followed Emma Distelrath in 20:31 for 109th, and Alyssa Mankey was 20:38 for the fifth scoring LCC athlete in 112th place. Rounding out the top 7 stars were runners Taylor Ward and Autumn Tuck in 20:41 and 20:55 respectfully. The women scored 315 points as a team in their division for a 12th place team finish among the NAIA, NCAA D3, and NJCAA teams that competed in the Blue Divison.
Coach Robinson said, "I was really pleased overall and it was a very competitive field and gives a good preview of what is to come at nationals. It was nice weather and was a great opportunity to run fast and the teams took advantage of that. When we look back, many athletes ran seasonal or lifetime bests, but when you have 30 runners there a few that will have off days, but 80% to 90% had a good showing. Most of the roster had improvements of some magnitude and some even hit times two minutes faster than before, which is huge. So, it was a great day to be in Royal Blue."
LCC hosts the Lansing Invitational this Friday, October 6th, at Grand Woods Park in Lansing.