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Falcons disappointed with conference meet
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on Thursday, November 20, 2008 (CST)
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By Jami Frantz, sports editor
When junior transfer Tatyana Cristobal lined up to start her race Nov. 8 at the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference at Bethany College, she probably wasn’t thinking about her first day of practice.
But when the cross country season began during the summer, Cristobal joined the Falcons for the first time at 6 a.m. practice and soon realized these one-hour runs – not jogs – would become the norm for her conditioning. She wondered what she got herself into and was discouraged at first, she said. She had never ran with such speed for an hour. But she kept at it. And as the season was coming to an end, more speed work came, including four mile repeats. But by that time she knew they were “doable,” she said. And she knew if she followed what Coach Winston Kenton said, it would show. And for her it did at the conference championship.
Cristobal finished third out of the women’s team after being the Falcons’ No. 5 or No. 6 runner during the season.
But by the same token, discouragement set in.
“I felt like I ran a good race,” Cristobal said.
She thought her performance would help her team, too.
But after hoping for third and beating certain conference teams all season, the Falcons on the women’s side slipped behind Southwestern College, Kansas Wesleyan University, Tabor College and Bethel College with a score of 120 in fifth – ahead of Sterling College, Bethany College and Ottawa University.
Cristobal said she doesn’t understand how they got beat at conference by schools they had beaten all season.
Cristobal finished in 22:39.70 for 31st place, but felt she had done better.
“It was a shocker,” she said.
Sophomore captain Taylor Doll led the Falcons in 17th place with a time of 21:27.40. Senior Sara Wiebe followed on her heels in 19th at 21:34.10. Junior Kelli Woodward and freshman Lindsay Dunham came in 33rd and 35th for the No. 4 and No. 5 spots. Freshman Megan Shepherd rounded out the Friends placings at 46th out of a field of 57 runners.
The women had their top five in before Bethel’s No. 5 runner. But because the score is based on the placement of the top five finishers, things got tricky. The same went for the men.
“It’s like golf,” Kenton said. “The lower score the better.
“From a distance it looked as though we beat these teams,” he said. “But then you add up the places and see the reality of how it turned out.
“The only way to know for sure you’ve won is to go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,” Kenton said. With that set, the team would get a perfect score of 15.
Men place fourth
The men knew sealing a conference championship would take a perfect day. And it was far from it with cold and windy conditions – something the Falcons weren’t used to competing in, Cristobal said. And even though it is something everyone else faced, they still thought third place would be worst-case scenario.
With the men’s top three performers consistently under 28 minutes, they wanted a No. 4 and No. 5 runner to be sub-28, too. And No. 5, freshman Branden Bryant, finished in 28:12.20 in 29th.
But freshman Lane Porter finished well under 28 minutes for a 14th place medal and Honorable Mention in 26:40.60. Sophomore Zach Bailor finished just out of the top 15 in 18th at 26:52.20. Senior Nathan Newby finished 23rd in 27:17.80. Junior Scott Baldridge captured the No. 4 spot for the Falcons in 27:39.50 and a 25th place out of 70 runners.
At the team’s training camp in Colorado during the summer, Kenton told the men’s team if they averaged mid-27 range, they would be champions based on past performances. Friends averaged 27:20.46.
“Any other year it would have been good enough,” he said. “They did what I had hoped we would do and it wasn’t good enough.”
The men had six runners in before Kansas Wesleyan’s No. 5 runner, but the Coyotes’ top two runners claimed fourth and fifth place for a lower score.
Friends dropped below No. 2 Wesleyan and No. 3 Ottawa. And Southwestern claimed the championship.
“They exceeded my expectations and wound up fourth,” he said.
Eight of the 13 men who competed peaked at conference, and Newby was just a few seconds from his personal record.
“Essentially everyone ran faster times at Bethany than Southwestern,” Kenton said. “It turned out to be a fast course.”
Sophomore Chris Parker was cleared to competed for the Falcons with a mild stress fracture. He was willing to pay the price to see if there was a chance he could help the team, Kenton said. Sophomore Tim Patterson competed with a lung infection as well.
“I can’t say enough about these guys because of the heart and soul they have,” Kenton said.
The majority of the men’s and women’s teams’ sights are set on indoor track season, which they are already training for.
But the program also is working together as a team even now toward a conference championship, Kenton said. He has never set his sights on anything less, and his athletes have never set their sights on anything less, he said.
The program graduates seniors Sara Wiebe and Nathan Newby.
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