Men’s, women’s cross country finish season

Photo by Josiah Garber

Women’s cross country works out despite the recent chill.

The EMU Men’s and Women’s Cross Country teams completed their 2003 season on Nov 1. The women’s team finished fourth while the men left the Old Dominion Athletic Conference Championship fifth.

Tim Harder led the Royals standings by finishing 20th in the race; Kevin Beachy and Kai Orenic followed him, taking 22nd and 23rd place respectively. Caleb Yoder and Justin Hawkins were 24th and 35th to finish the scoring. The freshman, Harder, showed his abilities this year as a college contender. He proved his endurance as he transitioned from running 5 km races in high school to competing in 8 km courses. Harder reports that the change was hard, "It is longer than the courses I ran in high school, and faster.” Harder is "looking forward to making progress and having fun next season."

As for the Lady Royals, three women will advance to the Regional meet. They are Wendy Driver, Leslie Grant, and Kendra Nissley.

Driver commented about her many new teammates this year. "It is a young team, but our new players did well. I am looking forward to see how much improvement we will have made by next year." The women were happy with their performance at the ODAC Championship with Nissley coming in 6th, Driver 10th, and Grant 14th. Ashley Handrich was 25th and Maureen Gingerich was 26th. Lester Zook, the coach of both the Men’s and Women’s Cross Country teams summed up their tournament performance, "They ran with heart."