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COLUMBUS, Ga. —
The University of West Alabama cross country
teams opened the season Friday night by
placing fourth in the men’s and women’s
event at the fourth annual Cougar
Invitational at Columbus State University.
"This was
an excellent opportunity for a low key,
first race over a shorter than usual
distance," Tiger head coach Don Medeiros
said. "Columbus’ coach is J.D. Evilsizer,
who is the all-time record holder in cross
country at UWA. He was a standout runner
here in the late ‘60s and early 70s. In
fact, he was the first ever GSC cross
country champion in ’71. I thought it would
be nice for our kids to actually see a UWA
legend and compete against his teams. In
addition, I like to start the season with a
shorter race in a small meet so our runners
can ‘get their feet wet’ before the bigger
meets begin in a few weeks”.
The men’s team finished
with 104 points as Troy University took the
meet with 27 points. Behind Troy was Auburn
(36) and Columbus State (65), while Lagrange
College (140) finished in last. On the
women’s side, the Tigers had 105 points,
while Auburn (29) won the meet. Finishing
behind Auburn was Columbus State (48) and
Troy (49), while Lagrange (128) finished in
last.
Troy’s Brandon Hughes
won the men’s meet in 15:47, while Maria
Speer took the title on the women’s side in
9:27.
Individual for the West
Alabama men’s squad, freshman Alex Brown was
the first Tiger to cross the finish line,
placing 23rd with a time of
17:57. Freshman Jeremy Wilson (18:13) was 23rd,
followed by junior Daniel Ross (18:20) and
sophomore Randy Putham (18:28) finishing 26th
and 27th, respectively. Sophomore
Deivid Delgado (18:49) was 29th
and freshman Craig Warlick (19:15) rounded
out the group in 31st.
On the women’s side,
Freshmen ReShai Reeves and Debbie Shisler
placed 15th and 16th,
respectively. Reeves crossed at 11:01 and
Shisler at 11:02. Junior Brittany Berry
(12:13) finished in 25th, while
Jill Gibbs (12:41) was 29th.
Freshman Brittany Otter (14:00) came across
in 32nd.
“I was
very pleased with our first race of the
year," Medeiros said. “I told the kids not
to expect too much because we have been
training hard and have not yet begun any
speed work to speak of. I knew the long bus
ride would affect their performance as well.
In spite of all this, they competed very
hard, and that was good to see. They battled
and passed opposing runners in the last 800
meters of the race, just as we have
practiced”
“The guys
did a great job of ‘packing’ in this race.
The slower runners closed the gap on the
front runners and we had 5 runners within
less than a minute of each other. This kind
of running is what we will need at
conference if we are going to be successful.
Deivid (Delgado) had a great race and ended
up only 21 seconds behind our No. 4 runner,
In fact, he had the fastest last mile of
anyone on the team in this race. This is a
big step forward for him”.
“Our two
freshmen women, Reshai Reeves and Debbie
Shisler, both did a great job, especially
considering it was their first ever
collegiate race. They ran fairly steady
throughout the whole race and were strong
enough to pass several runners near the end.
As they get more used to collegiate racing,
I think we’ll see their performances pick up
a good bit.”
Both teams will compete
in a 5:00 p.m. meet on September 15 at the
University of Alabama. |
