[ad_1]
The Nuttycombe Invitational this year proved to be one thing for both the Michigan men’s and women’s cross country teams: a test. Being the first large-scale meet of the year with 25 schools entered, the rolling hills and thick woods of the Wisconsin landscape provided an assessment of everyone’s offseason preparation.
And it was a challenge the men were ready for. Wolverines junior Caleb Jarema came in 20th out of 180 athletes in the men’s 8k with a time of 23:54 and junior Luke Venhuizen and sophomore Trent McFarland were not too far behind, crossing the line at 24:15 and 24:16, respectively. The entire top five scoring Michigan men all finished in under 25 minutes and produced an exciting result on the score sheet
“We probably came in as the 17th or 18th-ranked team and to finish sixth in that field was pretty impressive,” Wolverines men’s coach Kevin Sullivan said.
Impressive as it was, it was not unexpected by the team.
“We’re the ones that are in everyday practice and putting in the work every single day,” Jarema said. “…None of these people that come up with these external rankings know what’s been going on behind the scenes.”
The Wolverine men were able to turn their offseason grinding into a belief system founded on the trust of their own training and the training of their teammates. They blocked out the noise and pulled off upsets over teams such as Princeton, Eastern Kentucky and Portland. It was something Michigan has been waiting for all offseason, something it had counted on to help put the program on the map where the Wolverines thought it should be.
“We really believed that this is where we belonged all offseason,” Jarema said. “…This is the most bought in this team has been since I’ve been here.”
As for the women, a few solid performances on the front end were not enough to help Michigan pass this test as a unit. Graduate Mary Carline Heinine had finished in 55th in 21:02, a time very close to her personal best, and sophomores Penelope Gordon and Brooke Johnston followed closely with a 21:14 and 21:22.
The remaining four women out of the Wolverines’ top seven all finished within 10 seconds of each other, beginning with Senior Samantha Hastie coming across at 21:36. This consistent back half proved to be a little too far behind when results were tallied up. The 15-second gap knocked Michigan back to 19th place out of 25 and led to a middling result.
“In this type of meet if your gap opens up by fifteen seconds a person that’s thirty or forty points,” Michigan women’s coach Mike Mcguire said about the effect of a split top five in such a large meet as Nuttycombe. “They do a good job of pushing and pulling each other along… We just gotta execute a little more across the board on race day.”
The first large invitational of the year yielded different results for the men’s and women’s teams. While both know what they are capable of achieving as a team this season, the men unlaced their spikes with a sense of gratification while the women walked off the course determined the strike back as a more complete unit the next time around.
Related articles
[ad_2]
Source link
