The Eastern Michigan University men’s and women’s cross country teams competed in the 2013 NCAA Great Lakes Regional meet on Fri. Nov. 15. The men’s team finished 10th overall among the 31 squads that competed.
The races were run at the Zimmer Cross Country Course in Madison, Wis. and were a 10,000-meters. This was the only time this year that the Green and White squad has raced this distance.
In what is considered to be one of the strongest regions in the nation, redshirt junior Warren Witchell paced the Eagles with a 31:18 finish, placing 29th. Three other members of the EMU squad landed in the top 75: Junior Daryl Smith (31:48) finished 55th with senior Harry Dixon (31:49) right on his heels in 56th place, and senior Grzegorz Kalinowski finished at the 32:16 mark, in 69th.
“I’m certainly happy for Warren Witchell, who was not only our top placer but he was the highest placing MAC runner,” EMU coach John Goodridge said. “Warren was pretty sick the week of the MAC Championships and was really not 100 percent until Friday. He told me post-race that he actually wished he had gone out faster or pushed the pace much sooner as he felt so strong and finally over his lingering illness.”
For the past few weeks, nearly every one of the top seven Eagles harriers have been managing lingering illnesses or slight injury aches. Despite these challenges, the Green and White won the Mid-American Conference Championship for the eighth time in the past nine years and concluded the season with a solid effort and result at the Great Lakes Regional.
The University of Michigan earned the distinction of finishing first in the Great Lakes Regional, with 70 points. They dashed Wisconsin’s hope of earning its 12th straight title by three points. Notre Dame came in a close third with a team total of 74 points.
The Eagles can look forward to another exciting year during the 2014 men’s cross country season.
“Next year we return three fine athletes in Daryl Smith, Warren Witchell, and Willy Fink, who have placed second, eighth, and 11th at MAC Championships, as well as true freshmen Nick Raymond and John Knox, who have bright futures,” Goodridge said.
On the women’s side, EMU finished 12th overall in a field of 33 squads with 339 points. The 6,000-meter course was also run on the Thomas Zimmer Cross Country Course, with perfect running conditions.
Junior Victoria Voronko led the Green and White with a time of 20:38 and took 14th place in a field of 227 harriers. The only other Eagle in the top-50 was senior Kayla Pfund at 21:29.
”I’m pleased with our finish and especially proud of Kayla and Marina Manjon Rivadulla, who had huge days for the team,” EMU coach Sue Parks said on emueagles.com. “Our point total was better than last year when we finished 11th (our best finish since 2000) so I believe that our program is making progress.”
The University of Michigan finished strong in the race leading the competition and won the meet with a total of 48 points. Butler finished second and Michigan State University came in third with 67 points and 73 points, respectively.
Ohio’s Julie Accurso, the 2013 Mid-American Conference Champion, finished first place individually with a time of 20:00. This earned her an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships, which will be held in Terre Haute, IN on Sat. Nov. 23. The Eagles’ Voronko also earned a bid to the national tournament.
“Victoria worked very hard to make this a great season and I’m happy that she is being rewarded with a trip to the NCAA Championship,” Parks said. “She was a little bit disappointed with the last part of her race but it was still a solid finish for her in a very competitive field and a huge improvement from her 54th-place finish in the regional meet last year. She ran very well on the course at Terre Haute earlier this season so I believe that she will be ready to compete well there again this coming Saturday.”
Of the seven EMU women’s cross country team members that competed on Saturday, only one, Senior Kayla Pfund, will not be returning to the Eagle’s squad next year. With a team comprised of mainly juniors and sophomores, the Green and White will have a strong presence in the 2014 season.
“We hit some rough spots during the season but the team stayed positive and we continued to focus on being at our best when it really counted – at the MAC and regional meets. Hopefully we can use this finish to build on for next year,” Parks said.
