Generals show tons of improvement in Wooster Invite
By Brian Questel
September 14, 2011
352
There are benefits to staying home.
The Wooster cross country teams hosted its annual invitational Sept. 10, with the girls finishing third in the competition.
The race turned into a two-team race, with Dublin Scioto edging Amherst Steele, 32-40, for the first-place trophy. Wooster was third by a comfortable margin in the 11-team field with 111 points, with Willoughby South (149) and Orange (152) rounding out the top five.
Top individual honors went to Steeles Emily Johnson with her 19:26 clocking, while Erin Moomaw of Smithville (19:35) and Sakiko Minigawa of Dublin Scioto (19:36) took the next two places. In all, six girls broke 20 minutes on Woosters course.
The Generals were without one of its sister acts as Lauren Miller was the top runner for the Generals as she toured the 5,000-meter course in 21:29.
The competition was rough, said Miller, whose sister, Claire, did not run Saturday. It felt hard. My goal was to go under 21 (minutes), but I dont think I came close to that. I think I started off hard, but it was tough to keep up.
It was hard, too, without her sister in front to help serve as a measuring stick.
I usually warm-up and follow Claire, said Miller. Its nice to see her in the distance. We still did what we normally do, but in a race its good to try to get close to her.
There was nearly a minute gap between Miller and the next Wooster finisher, but the Generals then placed a trio of runners within 25 seconds of each other. Kaitlyn Aukerman finished 19th with a 22:19 and was followed by Vicki Anderson (22:29, 22nd) and Becca Kreuzman (22:44, 25th).
Gabrielle Sibilia placed 30th with a 23:32 to round out the scoring runners, while Jackie White ran the course in 24:55 to place 38th and round out Woosters top runners.
Wooster coach Nikki Reynolds was happy to see the results and see the pack move as well. She was pleased with Kim Sibilias run. While she ran in the open race, Sibilia placed fourth in that competition but most important posted a time of 22:45 that will move her into the varsity lineup.
With Kim running a 22:45, that gives us four in the 22s, one in the 21s and Claire in the 20s, said Reynolds. They were so excited to run at home, having all those people cheering for you and you know the course already.
We had tons of PBs, she added. Lauren had a season best and meet PB, and Kaitlyn was five seconds away from PB. She had a season best and meet PB and Kaitlyn dropped over a minute. Vicki Anderson had a season and meet PB, dropping a minute from her previous best and Beccas previous best was 23:37 – thats a 45-second drop for her.
It was a perfect storm of sorts for the Generals, said Reynolds, as the team had the opportunity to run at home, the weather was cool and they could sleep in, she said. In the open race we had eight PBs and four season bests.
In that race, Natalie Gustafson had a season best 24:49 to place 14th. Erin Johnson had a season best and meet PB with her 25:08 (16th) and Allie Wighams 25:15 (17th) was also a personal best.
Also recording personal bests were Sarah Sanford (26:48, 25th), Sarah Veney (27:50, 31st), Grace Cheng (27:54, 32nd), Larkin Carstensen (28:13, 37th), Helena Gastier (28:52, 40th), Kristy Kalikasingh (29:25, 42nd) and Younghyeon Ryu (29:25, 43rd).
Marisa Lanker (29:30) and Lizzie Kalikasingh (30:30) both posted season bests as well.
When you look at the personal bests and season bests, were doing what we need to do, said Reynolds. Now we need to get the pack together and move it up in order to achieve our goal to get to regionals. Thats one of the things we have to do.
We have a good mix of D-1 to D-3 schools (in this meet) and its nice to have that competition. It helps along the way. You have good athletes from all sizes of schools and the opportunity to compete against each other.
Wooster will travel to Youngstown Boardman Sept. 17.
