Tuesday, 30 September, 2008

A depleted PCC Cross Country team made the trip to Marion Reservoir last Saturday to run in the Tabor College Invitational. With over half the team injured, Luke Laha and Ryan Carey were the only Beavers to toe the line. In all there were 15 schools competing on the day and 126 total runners.

Laha and Carey both raced themselves to personal best times on the day. Laha finished the 8 kilometer course in 32:42 good enough for 99th place. While Carey finished in 39:37 for a 121st place showing. Laha knocked almost a full minute off his personal best, while Carey dropped an amazing 2 minutes off his personal best.

"Right now, to say we are a little banged up is an understatement," said Head Coach Cyrus Hall. "We are without our number 1, 2, 3, and 5 runners at the moment. But the guys we do have running are still working hard and improving themselves. Ryan Carey has improved as much as anyone since school started. I'm really proud of him."

Also running in the race was Corey Ferrell. Ferrell was a member of PCC's cross country and track squad last year before being deployed to Iraq with his marine regiment. Ferrell ran unattached and finished in 95th place with a time of 32:28. Ferrell will be rejoining his Pratt teammates at the start of the second semester.

"We are looking at getting Darryl, Dustin, and Josh back this week. Logan finally starts running on Monday pending doctor's approval. But we won't rush anyone back. Our goal is to have Logan, Josh, and Nathan all healthy by the time Region VI rolls around. If that happens, we feel like we can turn in a pretty strong showing there."

The PCC squad will take to the course again on Friday October 3rd in the Emporia State Jock's Nitch Invitational. The race will be held at Jones Park in Emporia, and will start at 5pm.