Flames Cross Country Shows Steady Improvement
The men’s and women’s cross-country teams turned in some strong performances so far this season, highlighted by a Sept. 24 trip to the Roy Griak Invitational in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
In a historically competitive race, the Flames performed well. The women’s team placed fourth and the men’s team placed 10th in the 21-team field.
Junior Adelyn Ackley and senior Calli Doan finished sixth and seventh overall to help push the Lady Flames past the No. 6 ranked Michigan State team by one point. Both Ackley and Doan finished the 6K course in 21:05.
The Lady Flames aim to secure their second consecutive trip to the NCAA championship after making the meet for the first time in program history last season. To qualify, teams must finish in the top two at their regional meet or be selected for it in a large bid.
Beating ranked teams could pay dividends later in the season to earn one of these bids.
“Beating Michigan State was huge for the program, and it shows us that we can beat some really good teams, even if it’s not their best day,” Head Coach Isaac Wendland said.
Looking ahead to Oct. 15, the Flames will have another opportunity to compete well when they travel to Florida State University to face a high-caliber field at the Pre-Nationals meet.
In a sport that relies heavily on rankings and times, Doan says she tries not to focus on these types of things too much before races.
“I don’t really look at stats or anything going into races,” Doan said. “If I research people before, it makes me nervous being around them.”
These rankings, however, have been favorable to Liberty so far this year with the women’s team sitting at fourth in the region and receiving votes in the national coach’s poll.
In the men’s 8K, Liberty’s 10th-place team finish was paced by redshirt senior Ryan Drew, who placed 21st with a time of 25:07. The men’s field boasted strong competition with No. 3 Brigham Young University taking the win.
BYU’s top runner and last year’s NCAA champion Conner Mantz won the individual title in 23:52. Wesley Kiptoo, an NCAA champion from Iowa State, finished in second.
Drew started the race a little further back in the pack, and at a certain point, he made the move to run with some of the top guys.
“The position I was in, it felt too easy and too comfortable,” Drew said. “That’s when I said, ‘Okay, I got to get up to that front group.’ I got up to that front group, and it felt awesome being up there with Mantz and Kiptoo.”
Wendland said he is looking toward Pre-Nationals and hopes for a strong team finish.
“We have work to do at FSU. There’s no doubt about that,” Wendland said.
The men’s team hopes to win the ASUN Conference Title after placing second two years in a row.
“We really want to snap that streak because we have not won a conference title as a team since 2010, so it’s been a long time,” Drew said.
Ackley and Drew both earned ASUN Runner of the Week honors, while freshman Jack Cottrell was named ASUN Freshman of the Week. Cottrell finished 147th at Roy Griak in his first outing as a Liberty Flame.
It was a busy weekend for the Flames as each squad sent a “B” team to the Queen City Invite in Charlotte, North Carolina. The women finished seventh out of 32 teams while the men did not field a complete team.
Kristina Young was the first Lady Flame across the line in 13th, while Stephen Carvalho placed sixth for the men.
The Flames are back in action on Saturday, Oct. 15 where they will be splitting up the team between the Pre-National meet in Florida and the VertCross Invitational in Kernersville, North Carolina.
Consentino is a sports reporter. Follow him on Twitter at @NewsWithMario.