Cross country teams place second overall

By Randi Moody

Despite having lost seven distance runners, Mt. Hood Community College’s cross country teams finished second overall at the Clark College Invitational Oct. 7.

Matt Hart, cross country head coach, said the focus going into the Clark Invitational was not team based but individual.

“We had game plans that if employed at this time at this meet, which we did, if we retained that information and carry it over into NWAACC or the end of the season it will help us,” said Hart.

Scores for the men’s 8,000-meter event had two runners placing within the top ten. Jarrett Ziemer placed second with a time of 26:44 and Richard Fischer placed 10th with a time of 27:58. Alex Boyles followed Fischer at 28:04 and Juan De La Cruz finished at 28:16.

The women’s 5,000-meter event had three runners in the top five. Sheryl Page led with a time of 18:15 followed by Annie Hayward in fourth place with a time of 20:18 and Amber Glunt in fifth place with 20:20.

“They exceeded my expectations in implementing the game plan for each one of them,” said Hart. “Also times were more brisk then I thought they were going to be. Even though I wasn’t worried about time, the times that people ran were impressive.”

Either through leaving for four-year colleges or just opting out, MHCC’s men’s team has lost seven distance runners. According to Hart despite the bad luck, the men’s team is strong.

“It’s a challenging year already but we’ve got some good individual performers that we’re really focused on,” said Hart.

Last season, Hart had one women’s runner resulting in MHCC not fielding a women’s team, something Hart had never seen at Mt. Hood before. At last weekend’s Clark
Invitational Hart had six women’s runners and for the upcoming Saturday meet in Clackamas, Hart is anticipating seven runners.

“To go from not having a team last year to having a pretty strong team this year and also having the individual front runner, I am proud of that,” said Hart.

MHCC hits the ground running Saturday in the Mike Hodges Invite with the men beginning at 11 a.m. followed by the women at 11:45 a.m.

Going into Saturday’s meet, Hart said the goals will be much like those of the Clark
Invitational.

“We’re going to do a strategy meet again. How I see it, I don’t care about the results too much until Southern Region and NWAACC. That’s where we need to have the team come together and do what we need them to do,” said Hart. “We did some different tactics at Clark and I anticipate doing similar if not slightly different tactics at Clackamas. Again, practicing things that are going to help us for NWAACC.”