Chatting with the Coaches: Cross Country

Hoping for a solid beginning this year, the Lancers cross country team kicked of their season at the Don Baker Invitational that was put on by the University of South Dakota in Vermillion on Saturday, September 6.

Although the Lancers didn’t finish first on either the men’s or women’s sides, they did have some impressive performances from a number of individuals.

Starting on the men’s side, all five Lancers ran their first ever collegiate races. And the results were encouraging.

Two Lancer runners earned top ten performances. These were sophomore Titus Kosgey and freshman Tyler Smit.

Kosgey finished fourth in the race running a 27:12.41 in his first cross country experience. Smit ran the course in 27:37.54 in his first ever collegiate experience.

“Both Titus and Tyler manned excellent on Saturday. They were our leaders from the start. They were in the thick of things from the start,” Coach Randy Fischer said.

As for the remaining Lancers Brandon Phizacklea, Kalib Heeren, and Lantz Kulp all participated. They earned 33rd, 34th, and 35th place respectively.

“We were very pleased with our performances this weekend. We think that we have a tremendous amount of potential,” Fischer said.

On the women’s side, the Lancers saw the highly anticipated debut of freshman and Yankton native Jade Steinberg.

Steinberg proved to be the Lancers leader by finishing ahead of the rest of the Mount Marty squad. Steinberg finished in 17th place with a 21.28.42 on the course.

“Jade is going to get a lot better as she gets more and more comfortable with running in college. We are excited about what she can do,” Fischer said.

Sophomore Megan O’Grady also had a solid performance. She ran a 21.41.58 which was good enough to get her a 21st place finish.

“Megan came in second for our team. She had a very good race. We hope they she can have another solid year for us,” Fischer said.

Brittany Fischer came in third for the Lancers with a 22:07.35. She finished in 26th place overall.

As a team the Lancers finished in third place just behind Morningside College and the University of South Dakota.