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Cross country teams gear up for Augustana, The Griak

BY TRYMORE MAGOMANA

The Pioneer cross country teams head into their meets this weekend on high notes after strong showings at the Les Duke Invitational on Sept. 9, where the women finished first and the men finished second.

Both teams have a tough weekend ahead. For the women, that involves traveling to Davenport today for the Augustana meet at Credit Island Golf Course.

"[We] will see a few teams we don't normally come across," coach Evelyn Freeman said, adding that the Pioneers will have a chance to see how it compares to other top teams in the central region, like University of Wisconsin-Platteville.

Freeman is confident that the Pioneers can perform well today. "Another draw for us is that the course is flat," she said. "We traditionally run our fastest times of the season there."

Grinnell finished fifth of 27 teams a year ago at the meet.

"We have some top runners, and we work really hard," Marisa Whitley '09 said. "I'm sure the team will do well."

The men's junior varsity team will travel to Northfield, Minn., for Friday's Carleton JV Invite. The varsity team will head to the University of Minnesota's Roy Griak Invite.

The Griak invite is "one of the biggest cross country meets in the nation with upwards of 50 teams competing," said men's coach Will Freeman of the meet that will have the Pioneers competing with teams from higher divisions of NCAA competition. "It will probably be the most competitive meet Grinnell has ever run in."

The Pioneers have never run at the Griak Invite before, and the team's top runner is hoping to see a better team performance than the team turned in at Les Duke

"If we run like we did at the Les Duke, we are going to be in trouble," said Drake Ballew '08, who was named the MWC Men's Cross Country Runner of the Week following his win at Les Duke. "Our [number] four through seven runners need to tighten up and try to close the gap [between them and] the one through three runners. If we can get our one through five gap under a minute, we should be competitive."

Bryan Berube '07 was optimistic about the Pioneers' chances.

"We will be facing some tough teams, such as Wartburg, Oshkosh and several good division III schools É [but] we think we can perform really well," he said.

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