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!