Coming off a fast race at Emporia last week, the Tabor cross-country team?s times dropped significantly at McPher?son Saturday.
?This was a decent race for us this week,? coach Dan Swaney said.
?It wasn?t nearly as fast as we ran at Emporia a week ago but our times on the whole weren?t too bad.
?The women were about a minute slower and our top five guys were all about a minute and a half slower. Both the 5k and 8k courses were just a little long, which accounts for a little bit of the slowdown, but not all of it.
?This course had a lot of turns in it and I think that slowed people down. You can?t expect to run faster every week but it helps to try to figure what happened if you don?t.?
Brielle Lund was the top finsher for Tabor, placing fifth in the womens? race in 20:14.
?She had been eighth with about a half mile to go in the race and moved in to fifth with about 50 meters to go,? Swaney said. ?She?s a strong runner and she?s showing that she has the ability to push herself at the end of a race when everyone is beginning to tire.?
Other Tabor runners who finished were Erin Flaming (24th, 22:00), Makenzie King (32nd, 22:00), Elissa Richert (45th, 25:09) and Jordan Scheer (48th, 25:47)).
In the men?s race, Dylan Crawford and Jacob Heil battled each other during the race. Crawford eventually pulled away to finish 15th in 28:49. Heil placed 18th in 29.09.
?They were close together throughout the race until the final kilometer when Jacob fell off the pace a little and Dylan had his now-characteristic strong finish,? said Swaney.
?They?re both showing that they have a chance at being all-conference runners in a month from now.?
Nathan Vogel was not far behind, placing 25th in 29:29.
Also running for Tabor were were Matt Spurgeon (49th, 30:59), Justin Ball (51st, 31:07), Richard Nance (65th, 33:47), Teal Stutzman (69th, 35:06), and Eric Funk (78th, 39:25).
Coming?The Bluejays host the Tabor Homecoming Run Saturday.
