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.