Monday, 22 September, 2008

The Pratt Community College Beaver Cross Country team travelled to Colorado Springs this past weekend. PCC was racing at NCAA Division III Colorado College in Monument Valley Park. After being rained out the week before at Friends University, the Beavers were eager to get things going again. Unfortunately for PCC, that eagerness led to some over aggressive racing on the crisp beautiful morning.

Dustin Barker again led the way for PCC, however he landed in 76th place and ran about two minutes slower than his previous race in 32:12. Following Barker were freshman Luke Laha in 87th place, and sophomore Josh Clodfelter running his first race ever in 89th place. Sophomore Jesus Perez made his season debut as well, and could only muster up a 92nd place finish due to some problems with his shins. Rounding out the PCC five was Ryan Carey who place 98th.

Skyline Product Darryl Willard was unable to compete due to a sprained ankle, and fellow freshman Nathan Sooby is being bothered by tightness in his quad muscles.

"To be honest," said Head Coach Cyrus Hall, "I expected to run better up here than we ended up running. I think it's only a matter of time before those times start dropping. We've been running a lot of miles, and the boys are still getting adjusted to the college distances. Darryl got hurt, then Jesus got hurt. Somehow, we've got to figure out how to shake the injury bug. It's really hurting us. We've basically got four of our eight hurt right now."

PCC travels to Cottonwood Point at Marion Reservoir this weekend to run in the Tabor Blue Jay Invitational. The race will begin at 10:40am.

"We are going to Hillsboro this week," said Hall. "It's a fast course and a fun course, and I think they're ready for it. I expect their times to drop significantly."