WICHITA — Only four-year college teams were better than the Allen Community College cross country teams at Saturday’s Wichita State J.K. Gold Classic.
Allen’s women finished third with 103 points behind host Wichita State, 26 points, and Kansas State, 33 points. The ACC men placed fifth in the team standings with 183 points. Wichita State won the men’s title with 33 points followed by Oklahoma Baptist, 71, Southwestern, 79, and Kansas State, 80.
Running in excessive heat, the Red Devil squads turned in good performances, according to head coach Vince DeGrado.
“I told our runners to start out slower. With the heat, running smart at the start needed to be a priority. Unfortunately our men got a little too excited but our women executed the race plan perfectly,” DeGrado said.
The races were a little longer than the Red Devils’ opener a week ago at home. The women ran a 4K and the men’s race was a 6K.
Gabriela “Gabby” Ruiz led the Red Devil women again with a 13th-place finish in 15 minutes, 15.51 seconds. Danae McGee ran 15th in 15:2.20 and Tsianina Whitetree placed 26th in 16:11.45.
Debra Kime was 32nd in 16:30.52 and Kim Boyle took 39th in 16:42.02. Emily Steimel placed 58th in 17:32.31 followed by Kimberly Cooper in 59th at 17:33.43.
Sidney Owens finished 78th in 18:40.89 and Bianca Ramierz took 89th in 19:04.68.
“I believe our women’s team established themselves as the conference and region favorites with this performance,” DeGrado said. “ Gabby and Danae were the only members of a non (NCAA) D 1 team to break into the top 20.”
DeGrado said Whitetree is coming back from an injury and Kime and Boyle are working together and keep moving up. He said the team is still searching for the sixth and seventh runners to move up in the finishing order.
“Our men went out a lot faster than I wanted them to and they paid for it. But the guys really showed how much fight we had in us. Last year I feel like we would have given up when people started passing us but this team is different which gave me a lot of positive from this meet,” DeGrado said.
Kyle Schauvliege was the No. 1 runner for the Red Devils at Wichita, placing 32nd in 20:06.65. Garrett Colglazier and Brock Artis finished 37th and 38th, respectively, in 20:18.96 and 20:20.43.
Evan Adams placed 42nd in 20:26.94 and Josh Whittaker was 45th in 20:32.11. Tegan Michael ran 48th in 20:36.53 with Tucker Morgan in 62nd in 20:55.29. Ryan Pulsifer finished 66th in 21:01.11 and Patrick Rachford placed 78th in 21:19.54.
“Kyle stepped up and moved into the top spot on our team. What’s nice about this meet, when our team is struggling up front we have guys that can step up and move into other positions,” DeGrado said. “When we learn how to race and put one together, it’s going to be pretty special.”
Allen travels to Joplin this coming weekend for the Missouri Southern Stampede where the races are of college regulation — 5K for the women and 8K for the men.
