CALVIN SPORTS REPORT FOR SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2005 (Part 1)
MEN'S AND WOMEN'S CROSS COUNTRY
WILMINGTON, OH * Both teams competed in the NCAA Division III Great Lakes Regional Saturday at Wilmington College in Ohio. Outstanding efforts will bring Calvin back to Ohio next weekend, as both teams have qualified for the NCAA Division III National Championships.
The 17th nationally ranked Calvin women qualified with a second place finish this morning in the 6k race. Ninth-ranked Denison University won the regional with 97 points. Calvin was close behind with 105 points, distancing themselves greatly from 15th ranked DePauw University, who took third place with 139 points.
First in for Calvin was junior Lydia Singer (Wilmington, DE/Hillcrest Academy [Nigeria]) in 21:46.0, giving her 11th place overall. Next was senior Camille Medema (Grand Rapids/Grand Rapids Christian) in 16th place with a time on 22:01.8. In third for the Knights and 22nd overall with a time of 22:16.6 was senior Lindsay Rooney (Denver, CO/Denver Christian). Junior Laura Holtrop (Rockville, MD/Chapelgate Christian Academy) and sophomore Christian Overbeck (Seattle, WA/Bellevue Christian) finished in 27th and 29th place overall with times of 22:24.5 and 22:25.8 respectively. Freshmen Calah Schlabach (St. Michaels, AZ/St. Michaels) and Kelly Edwards (Grand Blanc/Grand Blanc) were 36th and 43rd, finishing in 22:39.3 and 22:49.1.
Head Coach Nancy Meyer said, "Camille had a great comeback from her race at the MIAA Championships when she was sick; Lindsay Rooney ran the race of her career, and also helped keep Laura Holtrop in the race in the last half mile; Christina just gets better and better in every race; and our two freshman handled the pressure of today's race very well."
Calvin earned its 16th trip to national meet for the time, after a year's absence. A team who didn't win the league and didn't qualify for nationals last year has shown new stamina and energy this season.
"Going into the season we had two big goals. Our first goal was to win back the MIAA Championship title, and we did that. That was very important to us, but we also had high hopes of getting back to Nationals. We knew it wouldn't be a cake-walk because of all the nationally ranked teams in our regional. I thought our team rose to the occasion in impressive fashion," said Meyer.
The first-ranked Calvin men won their tenth-straight Regional title today and earned their 21st trip to the National meet, amassing only 46 points while second place Anderson University had 99.
Junior Tim Finnegan (Los Alamos, NM/home school) became the 7th individual in Calvin men's Cross Country history to win an individual Regional title. He had a two-man duel with Otterbein's senior Mike Sawicki, last year's regional champ. Sawicki led through the 6k mark, but Finnegan made a move to take the lead and powered it home in the last half mile, coming in at 24:14.3 and winning by 6 seconds.
Coach Al Hoekstra said, "Tim Finnegan was awesome today. I think he's got a chance to take one of the top two or three spots individually at the National meet." Coach Brian Diemer agreed, "Individually Tim might have run the best race of his career; he was outstanding."
Also contributing to the Knights victory were freshman Jed Christiansen (Greenville, PA/Greenville) with a 6th place finish in 24:45.0, junior Harrison Jorritsma (Beamsville, ON/Smithville District Christian) in 12th with 25:00.1, sophomore Jon Gries (King of Prussia, PA/Upper Merion) in 25:07.8 for 13th place, sophomore Bill Reynolds (Newton Square, PA/Delaware County Christian) in 14th with a time of 25:13.7, sophomore Tad Hulst (Zeeland/Zeeland) in 21st place in 25:34.3, and senior Tyler Zwagerman (Holland/Holland Christian) in 25:59.4 for 37 place.
Coach Diemer said, "It wasn't our best race of the year as a team, but we accomplished our goal to win the race. The pace by the two leaders was extremely fast. The rest of team tried to go with them initially, and that stretched our team out too much. We learned a few tactical lessons today and will make a few tweaks for next week. I'd rather us learn those lessons this week than next week."
Both teams will head to the National meet, also in Ohio, next week Saturday, November 19th.
Jeff Febus
Sports Information Director
Calvin College
(616) 526-6169 Office
(616) 526-8551 Fax
Received on Sat Nov 12 17:41:47 2005
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