The Stampede

Issue date: 12/4/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Provided by Brendan Hawkins Women at the start of race.

Media Credit: Provided by Brendan Hawkins Men praying before racing.

When I say, "I run cross country," I rarely take the sport's name too literally. After all, who actually runs across country - that is, who runs in muck, mud and fields? The running community is based out of paved streets and rubberized tracks nowadays. "I ran through the country" is what I told myself this past weekend at the NAIA Cross Country National Championships in Vancouver, Wash.

Realtors in Washington must have swapped their signal phrase from location, location, location to wet, wild and windy. Three individuals from Milligan's men's cross country team qualified for the meet, consisting of Austin Ellis, Aaron Wood and myself, Brendan Hawkins. We ran on the soggy parade grounds of Fort Vancouver for four loops for our 8,000-meter race. With the rain that plagued the area for the last two weeks, what was solid on the first loop was sloshy on the second and a slip-and-slide on the third and fourth loops.

Ellis, a 2008 Cross Country All-American, raced his way to 23rd place overall - fast enough to earn his second All-American honor. The Buffalos' lone senior runner, Wood, ran 27:28, his second fastest time of his last season. Also running a second fastest time of the season, I ran a 27:43.

The women's cross country team qualified a team of seven ladies and an alternate for the race. Unfortunately for them, the men's race churned the ground into a muddy mess and the women had two and a half loops on the same course.

The women's 5,000-meter race ran much slower overall because of the already gooey mud, leaving the race to tactics. Gillian Giffen finished the race in 21st place, earning her All-American honors for the first time.

Catie McMahon finished second for the team 47 seconds behind Giffen in 19:31. Leah Nelson and Lauren Hubbard finished within two seconds of each other in 20:03 and 20:05. Lili Zaldana, who normally finishes second on the team, finished fifth, rounding out the five scoring runners in 20:12

Finishing in sixth and seventh places on the team, Heather Exline and Danielle Mitchell-Mitchell was originally the alternate and filled in for Shanna Raines who was sick on race day-ran 20:29 and 21:03.

The race last Saturday ended our 2009 cross country season, but we have two more track seasons to keep us running to new goals.

During last Tuesday's practice, our coach told us that if we like cross country better, then today is the first day of 2010 cross country. For those who like indoor track better, he said, "Welcome."

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