Women place second, Tiger men eighth at the Chile Pepper Festival
The Cowley College men's and women's cross country team's third test of the season was the Chile Pepper Festival held Friday and Saturday at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.
This was the first time the Tiger cross-country teams had traveled to the course hosted at Agri Park. The meet was massive, with close to 300 individuals in the men's race and 179 in the women's race.
Weather conditions were unfavorable as temperatures were around 93 degrees with high humidity. Still, the Lady Tigers finished second to only Minot State out of 23 teams at the meet.
"Race day conditions and the race times were not in our favor to run personal bests," Cowley head coach Cameron Rieth said. "However, we cannot just fester on that. We still need to show up and compete regardless of the conditions. Having the ability to adjust race tactics and efforts based on what the weather is doing and how the competition is handling it is vital to being a championship runner. We need to be able to handle whatever the day gives us once the most important meets come around."
On the women's side, this was the squad's first meet, where the girls were towards the front for most of the race. Seeing how they competed and ran down people later in the race, how well they fought was more important than just times. Obviously, running fast is fun, but on a tough day like this, we have to adjust expectations and goals. I think we did a fantastic job of this, and on a good day, they are going to be ready to roll."
Despite the heat, Dhenifer Vaz (19:05.3) still had a 20-second personal best and placed sixth. Both Dhenifer and Leticia Belo (19:05.3), who placed seventh, etched their names into the program's top-30 list.
"I don't doubt that they will continue to scale that list by the end of the year," Rieth said. "I would like to have a couple more girls get on it by the end of the year as well. We still are in the hunt for a solid finish from all five scoring girls, but I think we have some things brewing. Finishing second as a team was solid. I hope we keep up the momentum and continue to keep improving."
Butler Community College's Khloi Bird won the women's 5K race with a time of 18:43.5. Other Cowley women's runners were Kayli Myers (19:54.3), Lakota Schultz (21:14.9), Britt Hunter (21:52.3), Lili Rose-Brehert (22:04.1), and Savannah Fischer (22:31.3).
It was a little bit of a different story on the men's side. The Tigers had a tough situation, being in the hottest part of the day and having to race a longer distance than the women.
"No team ran fast in our race, which can be a little demoralizing because we came down here to run fast," Rieth said.
Many athletes in the race had to drop out or receive medical attention following the race due to the extreme heat.
"You have to take what the day gives you and make the best of it," Rieth said. "I believe it is vital to learn how to adjust race tactics and efforts to get the best out of yourself for the team on that day. How you hydrate, how to warm up, and how to get mentally prepared prior to the race are just as important as the race itself."
Cowley's men's team placed eighth out of 31 teams, while UT-Dallas placed first.
Despite the challenges, Austin Schaeffer (17:23.6) crushed it and competed really well, placing 21st. Mason Blochowiak was Cowley's next-highest finisher, placing 36th with a time of 27:48 in the 8k race.
Mason Bickle (28:03.5), Deshawn Douglas (28:48), Randy Rojas-Mendez (30:00.6), Manuel Leos (30:43.2), and Kevin Rivas-Guillen (31:56.3) rounded out the Tiger runners at the meet.
Butler Community College freshman Adem Bouldjad won the race with a time of 24:16.2
Cowley will have some time off before competing at the Region VI Preview held Friday, October 14, at 10 a.m. in Iola, KS.
"We are very excited to see the regional course and then make preparations for that," Rieth said.
Photo Credit: RyAnn Myers