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Cross Country finishes strong at the Duke

by Brian Perbix

Last Saturday morning, Grinnell students came out to The Duke in droves, and not just for Plan B.

David Kennedy / The Scarlet & Black (web.grinnell.edu/sandb) Men's Cross-country

The ambiguous paint pen posters advertising everything from emergency contraception, inebriation and procreation “@ the Duke” were ubiquitous on campus in the days before the 43rd Les Duke Invitational cross country meet.

The promotion drew crowds of supporters to the Oakland Acres Golf Course right outside Grinnell College, to watch the men’s 8K and women’s 6K events.Saturday was a benchmark for the cross country teams as the Grinnell women won their home meet for the first time in Coach Evelyn Freeman’s 26-year tenure, and the men placed second behind ninth-ranked Wartburg.

The women’s team victory over the Wartburg squad was a hard-won 32-35. Sarah Spencer ’08 led the women once again with a first place finish in the 6K race with a time of 23:13, a personal record.

Also finishing in the top ten were Erin Booth ’07 in fifth place, Katie Ryan ’07 in sixth and Meredith Groves ’08 in ninth. The top seven was rounded out by Allison Louthan ’08, Sara Brady ’07 and Erin Sindewald ’08 who placed 15th, 16th and 17th.

Spencer maintained a large lead throughout the entire race. At the finish her closest competitor was a full 15 seconds behind her. “During the race people cheering me on kept telling me that my teammates were running really well,” Spencer said. “That encouraged me along even though I was all alone.”

Coach Freeman emphasized the successful performance of the team as a whole. “For the most part the runners that ran this race last year ran about 45 seconds to a minute faster than last year,” she said.

Freeman is looking forward to next week’s relatively flat race at the Bristman-Lundeen Invite at Augustana, near Davenport, Iowa. “If we ran good times this weekend who knows what we can do next weekend.”

On the men’s side, Dave Honig ’06 placed second after narrowly losing out to Bichok Deng, a sophomore from Iowa Central, in an all-out sprint to the finish.

The team’s sophomores made a huge contribution with David Krist placing seventh, Charlie Knuth placing 12th and Evan Palmer-Young placing 14th. Seniors Adam Beals and Justin Riley finished 17th and 27th respectively and freshman Drake Ballew placed 26th.

Deng, Honig and Riley were out in front for the entire race, fighting for the lead until the very end. The battle for the win took a dramatic turn in the last hundred meters when Riley, who had been sick since Thursday, collapsed due to complete exhaustion compounded by illness.

“It hurt a lot. I was overextending myself throughout the whole thing,” he said. “My body just stopped working.”

The intensity at the meet followed a week of more light-hearted gallivanting. Last Friday, the team ran its traditional Campus Loop, which involves bottomless men and topless women, much to the bemusement of students on their way home from afternoon classes.

X-Country Results

Bob Timmons Invite:

Men: 2nd

Women: 3rd

Les Duke Invitational:

Men: 2nd

Women: 1st

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