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Cross country prepares for Salem meet
The Advocate
The MHCC cross country season is now in full throttle and the teams are beginning to take on a solid form, according to assistant coach Keith Maneval.
"So far so good; we're making lots of progress," Maneval said Tuesday. "We're continuing to progress through the season."
On the men's side, Maneval mentioned a handful of freshmen — Donnie Coulson, Jonathon Butcher, Chris Newell and Troy Prettyman — and said their ability to "pack up" pushes each other to excel in both practice and meets.
On the women's side, Maneval said he is particularly pleased with sophomore leader Amanda Faggard and freshman Gabriella Diaz, who he says shows a lot of promise. He also said the entire women's team should be pretty strong by season's end.
Since the men run 8000-meter races and the women run 5000 meters, practices have emphasized base training for most of the week, along with intense interval workouts twice a week.
The next meet is the Charles Bowles Invitation Saturday hosted by Willamette University. There will be up to 500 competitors, and a mix of four-year university and community colleges runners.
"This race will be good experience for this young team," said Maneval. He said the meet will show how MHCC compares to the other community colleges,
Maneval said he hopes this meet will help the team continue to progress, "We've got a long ways to go, We've just got to keep building all the way to the end."
Caulson, the leading men's runner, had a similar perspective on the season, "We're a really young team. Practices are still getting more intense," he said in a telephone interview Tuesday.
"We're still progressing, We'll be ready for the NWAACCs."
The Charles Bowles Invitation will be held Saturday at 9:30 a.m. at Bush Park in Salem.
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