Saints’ Collmer lays claim to Southern Region title

MHCC cross country runner Christa Colllmer is the 2012 Southern Region champion after taking first in the meet Saturday at Lane Community College.

At the meet, Collmer ran a new personal best of 19:21, putting her six seconds ahead of the secondplace finisher.

The women’s team also had another top ten finisher in freshman Monica Amaro, who placed 9th with a time of 21:00, followed by freshman Molly Scoles in 22nd (22:58).

The men’s team kept it in a tight pack at the meet, with all five runners placing within 14 positions of one another.

Freshman Alex Seymour led the group, placing 20th, 27:54, with freshmen Nathan Geiter and Vlad Ishenin finishing shorly after in 22nd, 28:02, and 24th, 28:11, accordingly.

Next came sophomore Brian Hoglund in 30th, 29:34, topped off by freshman Lt Avants who finished in 34th, 30:30.

Once again, the women’s team did not score as a team at the meet, competing with only three runners.

Head cross country coach Matt Hart said that though Prisma Flores did arrive to run at the meet, she was feeling sore in her Achilles tendon and for reasons Hart is not sure about, Katy Bashir did not arrive at all to run at the meet.

Hart said since the team wouldn’t able to run as a full team anyway, being without Bashir, he let Flores take the meet off.

“It’s unfortunate because we could have done decently (at the meet),” he said.

Nonetheless, the team was by no means short on quality.

“I thought Christa executed the game plan perfectly. For her second year of running cross country, she has matured tremendously,” said Hart of Collmer’s first place finish.

“The thing about Christa is that she has worked extremely hard all summer and fall to get where she is at,” said Hart.

Looking ahead to NWAACCs on Nov. 10, Hart says all the hard work the team has put into until this point should help carry them to some great performances.

In regard to Collmer, the new Southern Region champion, Hart said he thinks she will be able to hang with the best.

“I think the effort that our whole team has been putting into training will give them all the strength and courage to improve and win personal battles within the race. No holding back anymore,” he said.

Before the team takes on NWAACCs, the Saints will be having their second bye week of the season.

According to Hart, the team will be taking this time to focus on the mental aspects of the meet, rather than physical, and said the team will be easing off at practice as well.

“Most of our fitness has already been accumulated so we are working on mental toughness and increasing everyone’s speed,” he said.

“Now it is time to allow the body to adapt and start working on race strategy, a competition mentality and fine tuning speed.”