Men’s cross country finishes season strong at NWAACCs

Disappointment was mixed with joy for the MHCC team at the conclusion of Saturday’s NWAACC cross country championship meet.

Six of the seven runners on the men’s team had PRs and breakout performances despite placing eighth of the 10 teams in the 10K race in Everett, Wash.

On the women’s side, the team placed sixth of nine teams in the 5K race, with two posting PRs, but some still left disheartened.

The season has been a bit of a struggle for the women’s team. Although runners maintained consistent times throughout the season, they didn’t finish the season as strong as they had hoped.

The meet left a bitter taste in sophomore Gabriela Diaz’s mouth. Asked if she met her goals for the meet, she simply said, “No, I did not.

It was fun, though. You have to have the (right mentality). I was thinking too much throughout the race.”

Diaz said the weather was a bit too chilly for her liking. According to wunderground.com, the temperature at the start of the women’s race in Everett was 41 degrees.

Diaz was also disappointed with the season as a whole.

“I wanted to break 19 minutes,” she said, adding that last year’s season was better, when she was posting faster times.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, sophomore Wes Hughes was ecstatic about the race.

“I PR’d on the course by three minutes,” he said, despite course conditions that he described as “ridiculously muddy.”

Cross country coach Matt Hart said, “For the most part, our men ran their best race at this meet. Wes Hughes finally ran from his heart rather than his head and ran his lifetime PR.”

Among the men’s team, the top three runners all PRed: sophomore Chris Newell placed 34th (26:27) out of 76 runners, Hughes finished 41st (26:55), and Donnie Coulson was 47th (27:29). He was followed closely by freshman Kyle Williams, with a PR to finish 49th (27:42), sophomore Jonathan Butcher, 51st (27:49), and freshmen Brian Hoglund, 64th (29:33) and Robert Hanke, 70th (30:59), each with PRs.

In spite of the conditions, Diaz still managed to place 21st (20:01) and was followed by freshman Christa Collmer, in 32nd (20:34), sophomores Andrea Beseda, 40th (21:44), Jennifer Tina, 43rd (21:51) and freshman Molly Scoles, with a PR in 55th (22:53). Freshmen Mariah Crumpler, 58th (22:52) and Bianca Jimenez, with a PR in 60th (24:22), rounded out the women’s team.
The majority of the men’s runners, as well as Diaz on the women’s team, have exhausted their eligibility, and so the future of MHCC cross country is a bit hazy.

“Seemingly, the cross country and track and field programs have been in a rebuilding phase for the last couple years,” Hart said. “My goal as a coach is to be more active with recruiting and getting more talented and academically successful student-athletes so Mt. Hood can begin competing at the top of the conference again.”

For now, many of the runners will compete with the MHCC track team, several of whom will be diving right back into practice in preparation for the spring season.

“A week off — and next week we start practice again,” said Diaz, who said she feels she’s more of a track person than a cross country runner. But she said she’s definitely ready for track to begin.

“I’m looking forward to track even more,” said Diaz.