Varsity Highlights

It was almost like two different days for the Men’s Cross Country squads racing at Hudson Mills Metropark today, the third SEC Jamboree and Red Division Championship competition.  Although the men raced only one hour apart, it was cloudy, cold, and breezy for the varsity runners at 2:30, then sunny, warm and mild for the JV men who started just an hour later.  The Pioneers came in third with 90 points, but Coach Sleeman was not happy with the team’s focus and intensity during the varsity race.  Saline won easily with 34 points, followed by Bedford with 42 points.

David Torres ran well, keeping the front pack in his sight for the entire race.  Coach felt that he could have stayed up even better with the front runners, but David had a respectable finish in 16:41, capturing the ninth place overall.  Congratulations on a finish within the top ten in this competitive race, David!  David earned an “All Conference” title here for finishing in the top ten.

Costa Willets was excited to finish in eighteenth place overall, and bested his time by over twelve seconds, to come in as number two Pioneer in 17:13.  Costa had kept teammate Eddie Codrington in his sights for the entire race, and overtook him by a second at the end of the race.  Eddie felt the cold, he said he felt really tight during his run, but still came in close to his season-best time with a 17:14 finish.  Tyler Leach shaved three seconds off his last best time, completing the race in 17:16 and capturing a 21st place finish overall.  Good effort, Tyler, great to see you PR today!  Max Shpilband felt great today, he is pouring it ON, and came in right behind Tyler with a 23rd place finish overall in 17:19.  Nice work, Max, this gives you a new PR by 15 seconds.  Galen Burrell dropped back in the second mile, struggling a bit with his race, and still came in with a 17:36 finish in 27th overall.  Stephen Doll was just behind Galen in 29th place, and made a new personal record of 17:57, keep it up, Stephen!