The Tabor cross country teams competed Saturday at the JK Gold Classic, where both the men and women finished second among five teams in their respective races.
?Our meet last Saturday went pretty well, but not quite in the way we expected,? coach Dan Swaney said. ?The temperature was decent for the women?s race and heated up quite a bit by the time the men were racing?similar to last year, but the grass was in significantly better condition this year due to all the rain we got this summer and that slowed the times down.?
In addition to the KCAC schools, NCAA Division II schools and junior colleges typical at this meet, Swaney said Tabor also competed against Division I schools.
Results listed below reflect Tabor?s finishes between non-Division I schools.
Joel Allen led the Bluejay men with a second-place finish in the 6-kilometer race in 19 minutes, 31.70 seconds (seventh overall). He missed first by just over 7 seconds.
Garrett Daugherty placed 10th in 20:57.40, Bret Mueller 13th in 21:10.20, Nathan Vogel 15th in 21:34.90, Phillip Magos 17th in 21:37.70, and Paul Williams 19th in 21:48.50.
?We had great grouping from the second through sixth runners,? Swaney said. ?The five of them were a total of 12 places and 51 seconds apart.?
Rounding out the men?s team were Josh Richert (27th, 23:08.40), Dustin McClure (37th, 24:17.20) and Jonathan Gutierrez (43rd, 26:09.40).
Tabor finished second with 55 points behind Emporia State with 35.
The Tabor women were led by KCAC Runner of the Week Brielle Lund, who won the 4-k race with a time of 15:47.37 (28th overall).
?Senior Brielle Lund had a good race, finishing only 9 seconds off what she ran last year,? Swaney said. ?Although she was farther back overall due to a stronger D-I presence, she was the first non D-I finisher.?
Hannah Holmes placed eighth in a personal best 16:31.41, Ashley Kemling placed 10th in 16:46.23, Kelly Gomez came in 11th in 16:49.07 and Jessica Vix placed 29th in 20:40.46.
?I am very happy with the way we ran as a team,??Swaney said. ?The most significant things were that our second, third and fourth runners not only ran well, but they were grouped extremely well, with only one other runner getting in between them and finishing 18 seconds apart.
?They also broke the school record for team time in a 4-k race.?
The Bluejays finished second with 54 points behind Emporia State with 33.
Coming?Both teams are scheduled to compete at the Missouri Southern Stam?pede in Joplin Sept. 21 with women?s action starting at 8 a.m. and the men to follow at 9 a.m.
