JOPLIN, Mo. — Finishing fourth and seventh, respectively, Allen Community College’s men and women ran well under tough conditions at Saturday’s Missouri Southern’s Southern Stampede cross country meet.
It was rainy and at times windy plus the course was muddy and had standing water throughout it. Times weren’t as fast but ACC cross country head coach Vince DeGrado was pleased with the performances of his teams.
“We had a pack time of 40 seconds from No. 1 runner to No. 5 runner. If we’re going to make a run we’ve got to keep producing results like this. The team really moved well in the latter stages of the race,” said DeGrado of the Red Devil men.
Southwestern College won the men’s race title with 48 points. Allen was fourth with 132 points and was the top two-year team in the competition.
Kyle Schauvliege paced the Red Devil men, running the 8K distance in 26 minutes, 25 seconds. Tegan Michael finished 27th in 26:54 followed by Garrett Colglazier in 31st at 27:00, Josh Whittaker in 32nd at 27:02, Evan Adams in 34th at 27:05 and Brock Artis in 35th at 27:06.
Ryan Pulsifer placed 39th in 27:11. Patrick Rachford was 83rd in 28:13 and Tucker Morgan finished 90th in 28:21.
Gabby Ruiz established herself as one of the top women runners in junior college right now, according to DeGrado. Ruiz broke her own current Allen school record in finishing second Saturday.
Ruiz ran the 5K race in 18:47.3. Danae McGee finished in the top 10 also, placing eighth in 18:57.4.
“Those two are a very tough 1-2 punch for us. Tsianina (Whitetree) ran a better race. She is begging to finally find her fitness,” DeGrado said.
Whitetree was Allen’s No. 3 runner in the race finishing 42nd in 19:41. Debra Kime was 72nd in 20:23 followed by Kim Cooper in 96th at 20:53 and Kim Boyle in 110th at 21:14.
Emily Steimel placed 117th in 21:28 with Caitlin Boeckman taking 159th in 22:59. Bianca Ramirez was 167th in 23:22 and Sydney Owens placed 175th in 23:47.
Eastern New Mexico was the women’s race team winner with 64 points. Allen was seventh with 196 points.
Allen’s runners prepare for the Oklahoma State Cowboy Jamboree on Sept. 29 in Stillwater, Okla.
