CROSS COUNTRY FINISHES STRONG

The Mt. Hood men’s and women’s cross country squads traveled to Lacey, Washington on Nov. 10, and returned from the 2018 NWAC championship with their best team finishes in some time: The men brought home fifth place, and the women placed sixth.

Saints Dyrrel Francisco and Tyler Tenny lead the men’s side, each with a top-20 finish (27:28 and 27:45, respectively, in the 8K race) and Christa Anderson led the women’s side with another personal best, 21:19:20 in the 5K.

Co-head coach Fernando Fantroy is proud of the results and this year’s team, saying, “This is a stepping stone to what’s to come.”

The Mt. Hood cross country program is heading in the right direction, as just last season the men finished seventh and the women 10th in the NWACs. And the teams truly seem together after several seasons of splintering, with low-ranking finishes at the league championships since 2014.

Part of the problem was team chemistry. Since 2014, both the men’s and women’s teams have lacked togetherness, communication, and motivation. Runners on the men’s side focused in individual goals and began having separate training sessions, while the women teams just simply lost their spark. They stayed close, but struggled to have a complete team (a complete roster), season after season.

But things are looking better. After Fantroy and co-head coach Kelly Holding took control of the program early this year, they told the Advocate back in September, “We know what we’re getting into.”

They understood the state of the cross country program, and they wanted to fix it.

After last week’s NWAC championships, the future is looking bright.

“Being on the team, it’s my favorite team I’ve ever been on,” said Tenny, a freshman at Mt. Hood. “We have the best coaches, the best teammates.”

Anderson, also a freshman runner, said, “I’m happy here at Mt. Hood. It feels like family being out with the team, and the coaches.”

Tenny’s top-20 finish at Lacey met one of his season goals, and though he finished behind Francisco for the Saints after leading the team the entire season, he’s happy with himself and is already looking forward to greater things in 2019.

Anderson lead the women’s team throughout this season and finished strong with one last personal record. Though it might have been just by a second or so, she feels happy and was proud of her performance last weekend, she said.

The Saints will have a short rest, as Fantroy is already excited about adding the runners into the Mt. Hood track and field team’s winter training program as it prepares for the spring. Hopes are high for many more personal records and, who knows, maybe even that beloved NWAC title.