Cross country works to eliminate off season rust

After nearly two weeks out from competitions, the MHCC cross country team was thrown right back in the fray Saturday at the Charles Bowles Invitational in Salem, where several athletes broke personal lifetime records.

Among the standouts included sophomore Gabriela Diaz, who broke her personal best with a time of 19:30 in the women’s 5K race, their first 5K of the season, and was also the MHCC team’s highest finisher, racing her way into 74th place of the 223 participants.

Freshman Christa Collmer was not far behind Diaz, finishing in 20:33.
“I have been doing decent in my races, but I want to break 19 minutes in the race and hope to do so soon,” said Diaz.

“I think the girls are doing well this year. They are all pushing themselves to better themselves and have come far since the beginning of the season. I think we will do well at NWAACCs this year,” she said.

On the men’s side, they once again ran the standard 8K race and although very few managed to beat their previous bests, head coach Matt Hart was by no means put off by the performance.

“On the guys side, we were consistent with our other meet,” said Hart, even with the slower times.

Asked whether the difficulty of the course may have been a factor, Hart rejected that as a potential cause saying, “There’s some hills, but that’s cross country.”

“They’re still at another level than last year. They’re just still discovering what level they’re at. They need to start believing that they can be there,” Hart said.

“But they ran well, I wouldn’t say it was a bad race. They stayed consistent. They just need to compete as aggressively as they do in practice,” he said.

Freshman Kyle Williams seemed to have a similar perspective. “The course was pretty tough but I think it had more to do with confidence since a few of us did better than the Sundodger (the season’s first meet in Seattle) so it’s hard to say,” he said.

As for the women’s team overall, Hart said their performance was promising.
“All three of our top girls PR’d,” said Hart. “Christa never did cross country before. She was a track girl,” he said about Collmer.

Hart said there is still some practice ahead, adding, “We’re still working on some fitness with some other women.”

Sophomore Chris Newell was the top finisher on the men’s side with a time of 26:49 followed by sophomores Jonathon Butcher, 27:03, Donnie Coulson, 27:33, Wes Hughes, 28:41, and freshmen Kyle Williams, 29:51, and Robert Hanke, 31:21.

Diaz was the top finisher on the women’s side with a time of 19:30, followed by freshman Collmer, 20:33, sophomores Jennifer Tina (20:51) and Andrea Beseda (22:29) and freshmen Molly Scoles, 23:50, Mariah Crumpler, 24:02, Katie Brokaw, 25:17 and Bianca Jimenez, 25:21.

Asked where he thinks his teams stand in the conference, especially with the NWAACC preview meet Thursday in Everett (results unavailable at press time), Hart said, “It doesn’t matter where our teams are, as long as we improve.”

“We’ve only had two races, so in terms of where we’re at in our conference, its hard to judge,” he said.

“I am very excited to run at Everett since it will be where NWAACCs will be held. This way I know what to expect when the most important race comes,” said Diaz.

“I think we’ll be more competitive at a conference meet,” said Williams.

The cross country team will head to Clackamas Community College for the annual Mike Hodges Invitational meet Oct. 14.