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Grinnell cross country races to another pair of MWC titles

by Andy Chon

The tension was high at the Oakland Acres Golf course last Saturday as 10 schools competed in the men’s and women’s MWC cross country championships.

Spectators held their breath as they watched athletes from Grinnell and Carroll shave their legs and weigh their leg hair on a scale.

The runners were competing in what is known as “The Stud Factor,” a competition that took place in tandem with this year’s MWC championships.

“It’s a different conference championship because Carroll was tired of the race not being about the conference title,” said Justin Riley ’06.

The Grinnell men and women’s cross country teams have dominated the MWC for so long that rival schools are creating other competitions in order to maintain their competitive spirit.

The scoring system for The Stud Factor required the runner’s to shave their legs.

“Finish time is divided by the dry mass of the leg hair in grams,” said Riley.

Although this competition gave Carroll the fighting chance they were looking for, the Pioneer men emerged shaved and victorious, handily winning The Stud Factor as well as the MWC championship.

The men had a much closer race than usual this year due to injuries among a handful of Grinnell’s top runners.

“Dave Honig ’06 had a couple back spasms and he wasn’t sure if he could run,” said Riley. “Pretty much all our number three guys were having trouble.”

“We didn’t really have our best race, but we did enough to win,” said Jordan Glaser ’06. “The longer you’ve been in this program, the more you realize that the only team that can beat us is ourselves.”

Although the men were very confident going into the meet, they still took the competition very seriously.

“[Coach Will Freeman] was making sure that we weren’t going to underestimate the meet. In the past years we’ve just been looking ahead to regionals,” said Adam Beals ’06. “We won conference every year that I’ve been here so I didn’t want to blow it as a senior. We were confident, but wary of the other teams.”

The Pioneer women left their competition in the dust, winning the MWC title by one of the largest margins in MWC history.

“We performed better than we expected. The men’s team generally wins with a huge margin,” said Erin Booth ’07. “I’m not used to thinking of the women’s team in that way, not yet anyways.”

Some members of the women’s team are more than ready to give the men a run for their money at the regionals in Wartburg on the 12th.

“We feel like warriors, kings of the world, or queens of the world actually,” said Cori Mckenzie ’06. “We’re not going to take any shit from the men’s team and we’re going to call them out if they try to give us any.”

After last weekend’s performance, the women are clearly ahead in the ongoing friendly competition between the men and women’s teams.

“They were stellar,” said Beals. “We talked about having a competition about who would score less points and they totally kicked our asses on that one. We had to swallow our pride, but I’m just stoked that we both won.”

Sidebar:

X-Country Coaching

• Coach Evelyn Freeman was named the MWC Coach of the Year

“I think all of us have had very positive experiences with Ev. She is an exeptional person to work with and grow up with and she deserves every single honor we can bestow on her. “ –Cori McKenzie ’06

• Coach Will Freeman was named the MWC Co-Coach of the year

“I don’t think anybody was too suprised by that. It might not mean much to him, but it means a lot to us because we really appreciate him.”

–Adam Beals ’06

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