The Tabor men?s and women?s cross country teams took advantage of the warm weather to produce 12 personal record performances and two season-best performances Friday at the Emporia State Invitational.
Freshman Joel Allen was the top finisher for the men?s team, placing 14th in 26 minutes, 10 seconds.
?Joel Allen again ran a great race,? said coach Daniel Swaney. ?Unfortunately, he developed some tightness in his calf in the last mile. If he hadn?t, he quite possibly could have gotten into the top 10 and been the top KCAC finisher.
?Regardless, he ran some excellent mile splits and had a 28-second personal record.?
Swaney said Jacob Heil, who finished 53rd in 27:21, had a down day but still managed to set a personal record. Swaney said he expects Heil to improve quite a bit in the next few weeks.
?The biggest surprise of the day was Chris Lopez?s performance,? Swaney said. ?He had run 30:03 and 30:25 in his first two 8-k races and finished this time in 27:52, a huge personal record and the kind of improvement we really needed.?
Lopez?s finish meant Tabor had five men finishing in under 28 minutes, a first for second-year coach Swaney.
Garrett Daugherty finished 80th in 27:53, followed by Dylan Crawford (81st, 27:54), Nathan Vogel (120th, 28:52), Phillip Magos (142nd, 29:17), Alex Wuest (187th, 31:37), Trent Wilker (203rd, 33:56) and Jon Guiterrez (210th, 36:40).
Brielle Lund set the pace for the Bluejay women with a 14th-place finish in 19:03, which is a 20-second personal record. She is only a few seconds from being the first Tabor woman since 2006 to run under 19 minutes.
?She?s really been racing well and has established herself as one of the best runners in the conference,? Swaney said. ?At this point it looks like she should be in the top five at KCAC Cham?pionships.?
Hannah Holmes finished in 57th place win 20:36.
?(Holmes) continues to improve pretty significantly and took another 16 seconds off her personal record,? Swaney said. ?She?s putting herself in position to have a shot at being top 20 at championships and maybe even getting into the top 15 and earning an all-conference spot.?
Finishing behind Lund and Holmes were Katerina Plaza (125th, 22:32), Allison Palmgren (138th, 23:20) and Jordan Scheer (171th, 25:34).
Coming?The Bluejays are scheduled to compete in the McPherson College Lakeside Shootout next Saturday.
