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| MaryAnna Morgan finshed 26th overall Friday at the Wilmington Fall Classic. |
WILMINGTON, OH – The Bluffton College Beavers cross country team ran well at the Wilmington College Fall Classic this past Friday, October 18, 2002. The weather conditions were perfect for racing and the times in the races were representative of the conditions.
The women’s team, despite missing the effort of Lauren Borga and having Jennifer Niedermier dealing with a case of bronchitis, still finished respectably in the race. The women took 9th place out of 16 teams with a total of 201 points. “The women ran really strong today. If you throw “little Borga” in the race and clear up Niedermier’s sickness, we could have finished 4th in the meet!,” said Head Coach Derek Stanley.
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| Senior Steve Borgan led the Bluffton men's team to a strong showing. |
The men ran a strong meet as well. The Beavers placed 13th out of 17 teams and finished just behind conference rivals Hanover and Defiance, respectively. “The men had a good day,…it could have been better but this performance is indicative of where they are in the training. We’ll come out hungry at the conference meet next week,” Coach Derek Stanley said of the men’s team.
For the women, it marked the first time in the history of the program that the race distance was 6,000 meters. The extra 1,000 meters did not seem to phase the Bluffton women as some came across the 5,000 meter mark of the race in their personal-record times. Leading the way for the second week in a row was sophomore MaryAnna Morgan who place 26th overall (just missing a T-shirt award) running a time of 25:31. Second for the team this week, continuing her rise through the team, was freshman Carrie Hudecek who finished 35th in a time of 25:55. Also scoring for the women were Rachael Szydlowski, 38th, 26:00; Jennifer Creamer, 42nd, 26:08; and Jennifer Niedermier, 88th, 27:48. Also running in the race for Bluffton was Stephanie Welch, 92nd, 27:54; Rachel Noirot, 115th, 28:36; and in her best race of the year, Alicia Stanko, 124th, 29:32.
On the men’s side it was senior captain Steve Borga who led his team on the course. Steve ran his career-best in cross country finishing 61st overall in a time of 28:27 for the 5 mile course. Finishing second for the team was sophomore Roy Kaplan placing 73rd in a time of 28:53. Rounding out the scoring for the Beavers were Andy Schiefer, 80th, 29:03; Josh Tolley with a break through race in 85th, 29:11; and Patrick Cooley, with a strong race in 92nd, 29:27. Also in the race for the men was Dan Rosebrock, 115th, 30:36, and Andrew Smith, 127th, 31:12.
“Taking a step back, this was a great race for us. I believe this puts us in a great position to surprise some teams at the conference meet. I would much rather go in to the meet as an underdog than with a target on our backs,” Coach Derek Stanley said. “Special mentions must go out to MaryAnna Morgan, Carrie Hudecek, Alicia Stanko, Steve Borga, Josh Tolley, and Patrick Cooley who all came through with good, strong performances today!”
Complete results can be found at Wilmington College's website by clicking on the links below:
The next meet on the Beavers’ schedule is the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships on Saturday, October 26 hosted by Mt. St. Joseph College at Mt. Airy National Forest in Cincinnati. The races are slated to start at 11:00am.
