Breanna Named AMC Runner of the Week!

Breanna Newton

On Tuesday, HLG freshman standout Breanna Newton (Rochelle, IL), was named the American Midwest Conference's Women's Runner of the Week for the week of September 20, 2010. Breanna was honored with this award after her school record performance in last weekend's Missouri Southern Stampede, where she completed the 5K course in 18:35.

Breanna and the rest of her HLG teammates will be back in action on October 9 at the Gary Stoner Invitational in Fayette, MO.

New School Record Highlights Effort at Southern Stampede

The HLG cross country team made their longest trip of the season over the weekend as they traveled to Joplin, MO to compete in the 22nd annual Southern Stampede. The meet, which was hosted by Missouri Southern State University, featured numerous NAIA and NCAA nationally ranked schools and the competition brought out the best in a number of the HLG runners.

THE WOMEN
RESULTS
The women ran to a 27th place finish at the Stampede and their effort was highlighted by the performance of freshman Breanna Newton, who completed the 5K course in a school record time of 18:35. Breanna's effort earned her a 33rd place finish out of 302 competitors. In addition, she was the 4th place NAIA finisher and top NAIA freshman performer in the talented field. Freshman Mandi Riddle had a strong performance, as the newcomer to cross country continued her rapid improvement by finishing the race in a time of 20:56. Mandi's time was a nearly two-minute improvement from last week's race. Sophomores Jessica Bailey (22:19) and Sarah Erickson (22:40), both trying to overcome early season injuries, finished 3rd and 4th, respectively, for the Lady Trojans, while freshman newcomer Amber Zinkula had a strong showing in her first collegiate meet, crossing the line in 22:42 and earning the 5th place team finish. HLG also got strong efforts from sophomore Liz Wilder (23:04) and Carissa Eichmeyer (23:39).

COACH COMMENTS: The ladies came out today and showed a lot of effort and heart. Obviously Breanna had a great race and was rewarded with the new school record time. What also impressed me was the improvement of some of our newcomers to XC. What many people don't realize is that Mandi, Liz, and Amber are all new to cross country this year and they are all in our top-seven. They continue to show great improvements each week and I expect that to continue. We are still struggling with some injuries that are holding us back from reaching our potential as a team but we are starting to progress and, with three weeks of training before our next meet, we are going to be able to really focus on getting better, faster, and tougher.

THE MEN
RESULTS
The men's team overcame some adversity to bring home a 20th-place finish at the meet. Junior Philiph Tonui had an outstanding day, earning a 19th place finish with a time of 25:02, just one second off of his own school record time. The team lost #2 runner Brett Jones who was unable to complete the race due to the extreme heat but senior Jason Cline stepped up and raced to a time of 28:38, just a few seconds off of his personal best. Freshman Tyler Malone finished 3rd for the Trojans (29:00) with junior Deon Russell (30:01) and sophomore Ben Griffin (30:34) rounding out the scoring effort.

COACH COMMENTS: It was kind of a hard-luck day for the guys today. Brett was having a great race before the heat got to him and Ben's time was adversely affected because he stopped to check on his teammate, which was the right thing to do. With that said, I think that both Philiph and Jason ran fantastic races and were rewarded with great finishing times. Deon has been battling injures and is not in race shape, so I was proud of how he came out and competed. Once he gets healthy he is really going to help us out. To have all of the adversity today and still be just behind some of our conference rivals, I feel pretty good about where we are. We'll use the upcoming break from competition to crank up the intensity with training and get these guys ready to be their best down the home stretch.

The team has a few weeks to prepare for their next competition, which takes place October 9 at Central Methodist University.

HLG Men and Women Victorious at Home Invite

Philiph Tonui and Breanna Newton racing to victory at the 2010 HLG Invitational

On a tough course made even more difficult by three inches of rain that fell the night before, the Hannibal-LaGrange cross country teams pushed through and gained victories at the 2nd annual Hannibal-LaGrange Invitational on Saturday.

THE WOMEN
RESULTS
The women boasted 5 top-ten finishes on the day en route to a winning team score of 17 points on the day. Freshman Breanna Newton earned her first race victory as a collegiate athlete, finishing the grueling 5K in a time of 21:11. Fellow freshman Mandi Riddle continued her rapid improvement, placing 3rd overall, with sophomore teammate Jessica Bailey right behind in 4th place. Sophomore Liz Wilder also raced well in her first collegiate 5K, finishing in 7th place. Sophomore Sarah Erickson also collected a top-10 finish, taking the 9th spot overall. Carissa Eichmeyer (11th), Bryanna Reynolds (16th), and Chelsea Holmstrom (17th) also contributed strong efforts for the Lady Trojans. Assistant Coach Beth Scott took to the course and placed second overall in the race.

THE MEN
RESULTS
The men cruised to victory on the heels of 6 top-10 finishes, including junior Philiph Tonui, who repeated as the meet champion. Philiph's 8K time of 28:10 was over two minutes ahead of teammate Brett Jones, whose second place finish was the highest of his XC career. Freshman Tyler Malone fared well in his first collegiate 8K, placing 4th, while senior Jason Cline (6th), Ben Griffin (7th), and Nathan Uding (8th) pushed each other throughout the race. Freshman Greg Stahlman made his debut and finished 16th overall.

COACH COMMENTS
It was a great day to be a part of the HLG family today. We are grateful that the Lord blessed us with health and safety today in what were rough field conditions. Both teams came out and competed very well today. If you were to look at the times today, you would wonder what happened but, let me tell you, our home course is the toughest we will run all season. Add that to the fact that we got several inches of rain the night before, and that makes for treacherous conditions. Footing was very difficult throughout the course and the times reflected that. However, we said going in that our goal was to be at the front of the pack and to run aggressively and that is exactly what we did.

Both Breanna and Philiph dominated their respective races but the rest of the team showed that they are also capable of making an impact. I thought that Brett Jones really stepped up today and was rewarded with a runner-up finish. Our girls are finally getting healthy and the trio of Mandi, Jessica, and Liz all had great races. After competing in these conditions, it sets the stage to hopefully head down to Joplin next week and really open it up on that course.

WHAT'S NEXT
The team will makes it's longest road trip of the season next weekend to take part in the prestigious Southern Stampede, hosted by Missouri Southern State University. Both the women's 5K and men's 8K will take place on the MSSU campus beginning at 9am on Saturday, September 18.

We want to extend a special thanks to everyone who came out today to support the team. It seemed like we had fans at every corner of the course and there was no doubt that it helped push the teams to victory!

Trojans Open Season at Big River Early Bird

RESULTS

The Hannibal-LaGrange cross country team kicked off the 2010 season by traveling to Forest Park in St. Louis for the Big River Running Early Bird meet.

THE MEN
The men's team put out a strong opening effort to finish 9th out of 16 collegiate teams in the meet. The Trojans were led by junior Philiph Tonui who placed 10th overall in the 6 kilometer race in a time of 19:43, which broke his own school record for the 4k distance. Freshman Tyler Malone had a solid debut, finishing 73rd out of 209 competitors in a time of 21:28. Juniors Jason Cline (22:02) and Brett Jones (22:15) both dropped over a minute off of their time from a year ago and sophomore Nathan Uding (22:42) rounded out the scoring effort for the Trojans. Sophomore Ben Griffin was the 6th HLG runner to finish the race (22:51) while junior Deon Russell, who had a great start ruined by a hamstring injury, toughed it out to finish in a time of 23:28.

COACH COMMENTS: I was pleased with the guys' effort today. Philly is just now starting to work his way back into shape after recovering from a foot injury so it was good to see him take a top ten finish in his first race. He faded a bit towards the end, but he persevered and showed he belonged with the best. But he feels great and his training is coming along, so watch out! Tyler has been slowed by a pulled groin but he came out and competed well i his first race. I expect to see his times continue to plummet as he gains more confidence and gets back to the full training schedule. Jason and Brett ran well today and we will need them to continue to push the other guys as we go along. It was a bummer to see Deon fight through an injury as he had a great start to the race. We need to get him better because we'll need him to contribute in a major way. We've got a lot of work to do, but I really like this group and expect them to continue to make big strides in the coming weeks.

THE WOMEN
The women's team competed well in their race, finishing 9th out of 16 teams. Freshman Breanna Newton had a fantastic collegiate debut today, as the Rochelle, IL native finished 8th overall in a very competitive race. Her time of 15:39 not only earned her top-10 honors, but also set a new school record for the 4 kilometer distance. Fellow freshman Mandi Riddle was the second Lady Trojan to cross the line, finishing in 52nd place out of 147 runners with a time of 17:26. Sophomores Jessica Bailey (18:22) and Sarah Erickson (18:41) finished 3rd and 4th, respectively, for HLG while sophomore Liz Wilder (19:03) wrapped up the scoring for HLG in her cross country debut. Seniors Carissa Eichmeyer (20:03) and Janelle McGinniss (20:23), along with freshmen Bryanna Reynolds (21:01) and Chelsea Holmstrom (21:40) rounded out the effort for the Lady Trojans.

COACH COMMENTS: I was really proud with how the ladies came out and competed today. We have been wrecked by injuries and I was just happy to get all 10 of them to the starting line. The times were not great overall, but that is indicative of where we are from a training standpoint. As we get healthy, this group will improve by leaps and bounds. With that said, I thought that Breanna ran really well in her first college race. She proved immediately that she belonged and she knows that she is going to get even better as the season progresses. Mandi, Jess, and Sarah have hardly trained due to various injuries, so for them to come out and perform like they did shows the kind of heart we have on this team. I was impressed with Liz and Janelle who both ran in a cross country meet for the first time today and did great. There's a lot to like about this group and I look forward to seeing them get healthy and reach their great potential.

The Trojans will remain at home this weekend to host the second annual HLG Trojan Invitational on Saturday, September 11. HLG will welcome fellow American Midwest Conference member Missouri Baptist, along with Culver-Stockton, Quincy University, and Benedictine University-Springfield to Hannibal for the race, which will take place on the HLG campus beginning at 10:00am.