Joel Allen, Garrett Daugherty and Brielle Lund competed for Tabor College in the NAIA National Cross Country Championship Saturday at Rim Rock Farm near Lawrence.
?It was a cold day, about 26 degrees when the men started with a 15 mph wind,? coach Dan Swaney said. ?It had rained for a bit on Thurs?day, so we expected the course to be a little soft. But it was so cold the mud was very firm during the men?s race.?
The men competed first in the 8-kilometer race.
?Joel and Garrett both got out fast like we had hoped and were able to establish their position early in the race so that they weren?t fighting through the pack to get in the position they wanted to be in,? Swaney said.
Allen finished 59th among 313 runners with a time of 25 minutes, 32.57 seconds, bettering his nationals preview time on Oct. 12 by 10 seconds.
?Joel?s mile splits were nearly identical to what he had run at the national preview meet Oct. 12,? Swaney said. ?But (he) did a better job on the fourth mile, which is by far the hardest section of the course, and the fifth mile.?
Daugherty came in 133rd in 26:12.32?31 seconds faster than his preview time.
?Garrett was consistently faster through the fourth mile, which he made significant improvement on, and finished with enough speed that he felt like he was finishing a 1,500-meter race,??Swaney said.
In the women?s 5-k race, Lund placed 110th in a field of 319 in a time of 19:16.63?8 seconds faster than her preview time.
?Brielle got out to a strong start like she needed to and was faster each mile than she had been at the national preview meet,??Swaney said.
?Although it was nicer that the temperatures got a bit warmer for the women?s race, I think that also allowed the course to soften some and probably made it a little slower than it had been for the men?s race earlier that morning.
?She ran a solid race in her last collegiate cross-country meet and finished off the best career by a female runner in Tabor history.?
