East Laning, MI - This past Friday, the Men's Cross Country team traveled to Michigan State University to compete in the Spartan Invitational, which took place at Forest Akers East Golf Course on the MSU campus. The team placed 11th overall and was the second best junior college team, placing behind Lansing Community College, but in front of Lake Michigan College.
Ethan McCombs ran a strong race, finishing first for the Skippers in 28:17. McCombs moved back and forth throughout the race, passing 6 people in the last mile to finish in 129th place after being in 137th place at mile 2. McCombs' time is a season best by 28 seconds. Jax Giannosa was the team's second man, finishing just seconds behind McCombs in 28:19. Giannosa's time is only 20 seconds off his personal best. Acer Campbell ran as the team's third runner again, covering the course in 28:40 and only 8 seconds off his personal record. Running fourth for the Skippers was Vinny Schweihofer, who was the team's sixth runner at the Skipper's Showcase. Schweihofer finished in a time of 29:56, beating his personal record by 25 seconds. The last scoring Skipper was Lance Kowalski in a time of 29:57, knocking 9 seconds off his season best. Kowalski and Schweihofer worked together to continuously move up in place throughout the race, starting in 226th and 228th place and ending in 179th and 180th respectively. Gunner Wessel, Trent Glass and Dylan Schumann finished not far behind, posting times of 30:44, 30:51 and 31:10 respectively.
Ethan's take:
"I think the team adjusted really well to a higher volume race. We've got a pretty young team, who I think are still adjusting to the 8k overall, so the fact that they can run consistent times in a small race and a larger scale race like this speaks to their trust in training. However, if I had to include a critique, it would be that our pace consistency is poor, especially toward the end of the race. I definitely notice it in myself, and the splits for our fourth mile reflect that. I think the team as a whole just needs to stay conditioned and work toward keeping form in the harder parts of the race where we feel that pace drop.
The men return to action Friday, September 20th at the MCCAA Eastern Conference meet hosted by Macomb Community College at Stony Creek Metro Park.
