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Nov. 14, 2009
Team Results
Individual Results
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Despite being severely depleted by injuries and illness, the Miami University men's cross country team closed out its 2009 campaign with a gutsy 14th-place performance at the 10K Great Lakes Regional Saturday afternoon at the Indiana Championship Cross Country Course to finish in the top half of the field. The 30-team regional championship, the RedHawks' only 10K race of the season, was hosted by Indiana University.
Junior Michael Perry (Cincinnati, Ohio) was Miami's top finisher for the second straight race, crossing in 48th place, his career-best finish at the regional meet, in a time of 32:27.42. Senior Paul Krebs (Kettering, Ohio) placed 52nd for the RedHawks in 32:30.50, marking the third time this year he's been Miami's second finisher while also earning a career-best regional finish.
Senior Kevin Silver (Beachwood, Ohio), running in his final race as a RedHawk despite suffering from an illness the last few weeks (including at the MAC Championship), finished in 90th, while fellow seniors Adam Martin (Chesterton, Ind.) and Ryan Dezso (Copley, Ohio) claimed 92nd and 98th place, respectively.
"Kevin had a tremendous race for being sick. The doctors wouldn't let him run for 10 days (after being sick)," head coach Warren Mandrell said. "He ran a little bit his week and that was it. He ran really tough today though. I was just amazed that he even made it through. He beat a lot of people. It was his last race and he said he wanted to run."
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Miami, who finished with 380 points, was fourth out of seven Mid-American Conference schools at the regional and finished ahead of local rivals Purdue, Cincinnati and Xavier. Wisconsin, ranked No. 10 in the nation and tops in the regional poll, won the meet with 62 points, while Michigan State was second, as both earned automatic berths to the NCAA Championship. Ohio State's Jeff See was the individual winner in 31:03.16.
Redshirt freshman David Eichenberger (Plainfield, Ind.), who was third for Miami at the MAC meet, was unable to run due to a foot injury he sustained at the league championship two weeks ago, while redshirt sophomore Brian Gallagher (Westlake, Ohio) has now missed the last three races with an injury. Redshirt sophomore Chris Dennison (Aurora, Ohio) was Miami's sixth finisher Saturday, placing 123rd, despite battling through illness, while freshman Jarrod Eick (Hartville, Ohio) was the 'Hawks' seventh runner in 150th (out of 206). Junior Robbie Fisher (Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich.) also missed the meet due to a family emergency.
"I was pleased with how we ran considering how depleted we were. Chris did not look his best today, he struggled this week in practice as well, but he wanted to run so we let him run anyway," Mandrell said. "Eichenberger was on crutches this week so the doctors wouldn't let him run, so we ended up being awful short-handed. We had five of our top 10 dealing with some sort of injury or illness, so I was very pleased with how they competed knowing that we came in undermanned, but they lined up and raced pretty well."
The RedHawks, who were ranked No. 13 in the U.S. Track and Field/Cross Country Coaches Association Great Lakes Region poll entering the race, will likely finish 14th in the final regional poll (of 15 ranked teams), even with all the injuries and illness.
"I was hoping we would be in the top 15 (in the race) so we would finish in the regional rankings," Mandrell said. "I've never had a team that wasn't in the top 15 in the final regional ranking since they started doing that, so I'm glad we were able to accomplish that."
--MURedHawks.com--
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