XC season ends in Georgia

Photo by Wayne Gehman

Freshman Kara Glick finished 95th in the women's race at the NCAA Regional in Atlanta.

In the finale of this year's season, the EMU men's cross country team finished 14th out of 20 teams present at the NCAA Cross Country South/Southeast Regional on Saturday, while the Lady Royals only had one runner participate. The race took place in Atlanta, Ga.

On the men's side, hosting team Emory University took first place with only 42 points scored. Individually, the race was captured by Washington and Lee's junior Nathan Johnson (also the Old Dominion Athletic Conference Runner of the Year), in a time of 26:43.

The Royals placed fourth out of six ODAC squads in the race. Junior Kevin Beachy was the top runner for EMU, placing 64th out of 143 runners with a time of 29:10, followed by sophomore Tim Harder who finished 84th in 29:56. Sophomore Pete Nelson followed close behind, finishing in 88th place in 30:12, followed by Caleb Yoder in 99th place with a time of 31:00. Freshman Lars Akerson came in 100th with a time of 32:39.

Beachy reflected, "As a team we had a lot of fun on the trip. The race didn't go as well as we could have hoped, but it was a good experience."

For the women, freshman Kara Glick was the lone competitor, as the rest of EMU's women's team has been sidelined due to injury. Kara placed 95th out of 144 runners with a time of 27:45, setting a personal record.

"It was good to have the experience of running in the regional meet against the best runners from the region, and, for me, I ran a good time and felt good about my race," said Glick. As for being the sole female runner for EMU, she said she "liked the small-team feel and getting to know the guys on the team, but I do hope we can pull together a women's team next year."

Though the season is over for the cross country team, the running excitement will continue through the indoor track and field program here at EMU. This team's first meet will occur Saturday, Dec. 4, at the VMI Invitational.