CROSS COUNTRY WEEKLY REVIEW: Lancers Hit Speed Bumps at Briar Cliff Meet

BY SCOTT MORRISON

Heading into the Briar Cliff Invitational Cross Country Meet, the Lancers knew that a strong performance would go along way in preparing them for their only home meet of the season.

Unfortunately the Lancers ran into a number of difficulties that prevented them having a productive meet.

This began as junior Jessica Albers, who had been improving her time minute-by-minute, pulled a muscle prior to the begging of the race and was unable to participate in the race.

Sophomore Megan O’ Grady was the first Lancer to pass the finish line, but do to a touch of the flue she was forced to stop to catch her breath on multiple occasions.

This hurt O’Grady’ standing as she was forced to deal with a 21:03, the slowest time of her 2007 season giving her a 32nd place finish.

“Today was not our best day of the season,” Lancers coach Randy Fischer said. “We had some injuries and some girls sick.”

Sophomor Ashley Solem finished in 113th place with a time of 26:51. Britteny Williams did her best to run along side of Solem and finished in 114th place with a time of 27:41.

“Solem has not had many opportunities to train with the team,” Fischer said. “For her to come out and run smart was key to her individual progress which has bee improving throught the year.”

Amber Le Zuerlin ran in her first collegiate finishing 119 with a time of 28:38.

“We are all happy with the way that Amber Le came out ready to run,” Fischer said. “I think all she needs to do is to learn to run smart and to make improvements down the road,”

The Lancers will participate as the host team in their only home cross country meet of the season. The Mount Marty College Graphic Edge Cross Country Invitational will begin at 10:00 a.m. at the Human Services Center course on Saturday Oct. 15.

In order to achieve success amongst the strong varieties of runners that will be involved in the meet, the Lancers must be able to rest their runners and prepare to improve on last week’s performance.