Tiger cross country teams impress in season debut
The Cowley College cross country teams started their 2023 campaign Saturday at the 75th Annual JK Gold Classic in Wichita, KS.
This was the first time the meet was hosted at the Clapp Golf Course. Both Tiger teams finished inside the top 5 and were the only NJCAA team present. The Tigers have essentially two brand-new teams, with three returners on the men's side and only one on the women's side.
"It was really good to see where we are at," Cowley head coach Cameron Rieth said. "We have a very young and raw team, which is kind of tough being put into a meet with seasoned 4-year schools, one being Wichita State. From a training perspective, we did not really pull back for this meet. There were a lot of really good things for this part in the season, but also things we need to get better at. One of those being we need to get our No. 4 and No. 5 up closer to our No. 3 runner. Thankfully, we still have two months to keep getting better. I am excited for this group of girls' potential. It was very good to see Dheniffer Vaz (20:19.2) take a major step forward as a cross-country runner. She has so much potential, and today was a great step mentally for her. Leticia Belo (19:31.6) also had a great race, she ran solo right behind the Wichita State pack for most of the race. It was also great to see all our new freshmen debut in a Cowley uniform as well."
On the men's side, the Tigers did not run four of their expected top runners, so that cut into the team averages.
"A couple of our major goals for this weekend was to blow out the summer race rust and see where we are at as a team," Rieth said. "We had several guys put in such a good summer of running and a couple of 800-meter runners running cross country for the first time. I'd say, as a whole, most of our fellas got out too fast today and paid for it later in the race, but those are mistakes that are bound to happen with the first meet of the year. It went about as well as a first meet of the year will."
Mason Bickle led the way with a personal best time of 19:36.9. Fellow Tiger Austin Schaefter was just behind in 27th place with a time of 19:54.1.
The Wichita State men and women placed first at the meet, while the Lady Tigers finished third behind runner-up Newman University. The Tiger men placed fifth as a team.
The Tiger cross country teams will return to action on Saturday, September 16, at 10 a.m., when they take part in the Woody Greeno / Dirksen Invitational in Nebraska.
"We still have a long way to go on this, so I am excited to see how we progress," Rieth said. "It was a great way to start the season."