Cross Country Round-up: Marlin Invitational

 

September 1, 2007 - Guilford College's cross country teams kicked off their seasons Saturday at Virginia Beach for the Marlin Invitational, hosted by Virginia Wesleyan College. As opposed to last year when we followed tropical storm Ernesto into Virginia Beach, the weather this year was warm, bordering on hot, and the course was bone dry.

The women ran first with the gun going off at 10:00am. At the one-mile mark, Charissa Duncan and Grace Normann led the team at 6:50. Carolyn Herlehy and Paige McCall followed at 7:10. Caroline Gadsby, competing unattached, checked in at 7:23. Emily Frenzel and Johanna Narazday came through at 7:33 and 7:44, respectively. The women entered the woods and were not seen again until 800m left in the race. Normann finished first, running a personal-best time of 21:48. Duncan followed closely in 21:56. Herlehy finished next in 23:21. Finishing fourth for the Quakers was Gadsby, running a personal-best of 24:09. McCall followed closely, finishing in 23:53. Frenzel and Narazday finished in 25:45 and 27:06, respectively. The women placed fifth overall, only 15 points out of third, and had five runners finish before last year's number-four finisher.

The men's race began at 10:45 a.m. and the temperature was rising. Following directions from Coach LaFollette, the men went out conservatively (perhaps a little too conservatively), coming through the mile in a pack at 5:55. At three miles, the first five runners were separated by a little more than a minute, with Jeremy Wang leading, followed by Jeremy Bante, Chris Walker, Leon Odell and Marc Ramsay. Brett McDonough and Tyler Brown came by within the next minute. The team stayed in basically the same order with Wang finishing in 30:24, Walker in 31:26, O'Dell in 31:44, Bante in 32:29, Ramsay in 32:52, McDonough in 34:17, and Brown in 35:12. The men's team placed third out of six teams, beating conference foes Hampden-Sydney and Eastern Mennonite, while falling to Virginia Wesleyan.

The Quakers compete this coming weekend at Washington and Lee. This meet will serve as a preview to the ODAC Championships, which will be held on the same course October 27. For parents interested in attending the ODAC meet, it is being held during Washington and Lee's Parents Weekend and hotel rooms are scarce. The Quakers will be staying in Roanoke, Virginia, that weekend.

-Submitted by head coach Jamie LaFollette.