The Eastern Michigan University men’s and women’s cross-country teams raced to victories in the EMU Fall Classic on Friday, Oct. 25. The meet was held at the Green and White’s home at Hudson Mills Metropark-North Course in Dexter, Mich.
On the men’s side, senior Grzegorz Kalinowski finished first with an impressive time of 15 minutes, 13.8 seconds, while his classmate, senior Harry Dixon, took second place clocking in at 15:15.5. Following close behind were sophomore Willy Fink and redshirt junior Warren Witchell with times of 15:16.0 and 15:16.9, respectively.
The Eagles had eight runners finish in the top half of the field of 54. Other runners for the Eagles who finished under the 16-minute mark were redshirt junior Ian Hancke, sophomore Austin Lane, junior Cameron Trinh and sophomore William Trice who came in 12th, 24th, 25th and 26th respectively.
“I used the EMU Cross Country Classic for most of the team as a controlled training effort in preparation for the upcoming MAC Championship while others did a different training session in the morning. Our front four executed the plan to perfection,” EMU men’s coach John Goodridge said.
The Hudson Mills course is deemed to be a more difficult course than the upcoming MAC Championship course at Bowling Green State University. The Bowling Green course is on their golf course and has one hill, compared to the Eagles’ home course which has several hills that are repeated and also involves some twisty forest trails.
“Our guys are familiar with the BG course and are looking forward to racing on it,” Goodridge said.
On the women’s side, four athletes from the Green and White ran in the event. In a field of 74, the Eagles runners finished 38th, 41st, 44th, and 54th. Sophomore Amy Frauhammer led the EMU runners with a time of 18:49.9. Freshman Anna Quilez Ribera, junior Taylor Knoll and redshirt freshman Samantha Szuminski came in at 19:12.8,19:27.7 and 20:18.2 respectively.
Nicole Sifuentes, a Canadian National Team member and former University of Michigan Wolverine, led the pack to win the race with a time of 16:57.1. Coming in second and third were Becca Addison (Unattached), with a time of 17:24.4, and Raquel Serna (Michigan State University), with a time of 17:39.0.
Looking Ahead:
The men and women will compete next week at the 2013 MAC Championships in Bowling Green, Ohio.
The meet will take place beginning at 11 a.m. on Nov. 2. Should the men come out on top next weekend, they will become four-time winners of the title.
A win would also mean Goodridge will tie for the most MAC championship titles (nine) along with legendary EMU track coach Bob Parks.
The women’s squad will look to improve over last season’s fifth place finish in the MAC.
