Roughly three-fifths of the way into the NJCAA Region VI men’s cross country meet on Monday, Red Devils head coach Vince DeGrado called off the dogs.
The Allen County Men’s team had clinched their third straight Region VI title and their sixth straight conference title with almost two miles left in the race.
“We knew going in that we were going to win,” DeGrado said. “And I told them that if we have it won, I’m going to have you guys shut it down and maintain. Don’t let anybody pass you and just maintain because we race again in 12 days. As soon as we got to mile three or so we had it won so I told them to relax.”
The fifth-ranked Red Devil men may not have lit up individual results with only two runners placing in the top 10 but Allen County and DeGrado didn’t care. The national meet is 12 days away and that’s what they’re really running for.
“That was our worst conference total we’ve had since I’ve been here,” DeGrado said. “When we shut it down, Highland and Cowley kept pressing but the whole idea was to do enough to win.”
Paul Becker finished third and earned a Jayhawk East Conference title with a time of 26:44.6 while Berry King finished 10th with a time of 27:11.7.
Following right behind Berry were Yoel Yoel (27:15.2) who finished 11th, Joshua Clethen (27:15.4) who finished 12th and Anthony Glasgow (27:17.5) who finished 13th.
Meanwhile, the women came up short in both region and the conference finishing third and second respectively behind Colby and Cowley.
“Colby’s a lot better than a lot of people think and Cowley’s talented,” DeGrado said. “They’ve done a great job over there with their women. But I wasn’t disappointed at all. I was happy with their effort because it was much better than the effort that they displayed two weeks before. Sometimes a team is just better than you. You just have put up and say it is what it is.”
Abby Steinhauser still fought her way to the top spot in the Jayhawk East with a time of 20:25.1 while finishing third in the region while Karen Perez finished sixth with a time of 20:29.2 to round out the top 10.
Amber Gloria (20:49.9) finished 14th, Marianna Duenes-Gomez (21:39.2) finished 37th and Maria Puente (21:47.4) finished 39th.
Next up, both teams will compete in the NCAA National Cross Country Championship in Fort Dodge, Iowa on November 11th.
“We’ve yet to display what we can really do,” DeGrado said. “We’ve shown glimpses of it and now it’s just doing it and cutting loose. We’re still waiting for the peak. We have better races in us. This wasn’t our best race and I didn’t want it to be our best race. I just wanted us to get in and get out and win.”
Red Devil men take first at Region VI meet; women get third
