Red Devils are off and running

Training is what it takes to build a national contender in cross country.
That’s according to Allen County Community College’s new cross country head coach Vince DeGrado. He would know since a year ago he guided Cowley County Community College of Arkansas City to an unprecedented long-distance fall season. Both NJCAA cross country titles — men’s and women’s — along with the two NJCAA half-marathon championships were won by the Tiger runners in 2010.
DeGrado returns to Allen County, the place that he started his college coaching career at in 2005, to build the same type of program in Iola.
The Red Devils opened the 2011 season Friday at home, hosting the Red Devil Duals, which was a 3200-meter race for the women and a 5K race for the men. Joining Allen County were teams from Neosho County, Butler County and Garden City.
“I believe the right training for athletes can build a program and Allen County is a cross country town. We have to get the runners we have this year in running shape. It’s a fitness thing right now,” DeGrado said of his teams as preseason conditioning workouts began.
Allen County has no returning runners on the men’s side from last year and one runner on the women’s side — Amanda Sharp. Sharp, who is from Pomona, did not compete in Friday’s race because she’s been hampered with shin pain.
“Amanda has talent and we’ve got her in new running shoes. Under the new training regime, she should improve her times from last year,” DeGrado said. Sharp was the top runner for the Red Devil women last year, finishing 87th overall at the Jayhawk Conference/Regional VI meet last year.
Freshmen on the ACCC women’s team are Gabriela “Gabby” Ruiz of Tulsa, Okla., Kimberly Boyle of Lantana, Fla., Italy Loving of Iola, who ran for Crest High School in Colony, and Brianna Jacobs of Topeka. Tsianina Whitetree of Topeka is being red-shirted.
Ruiz, as predicted by Degrado, proved to be the top runner for ACCC on Friday. Ruiz won the women’s race in 12 minutes, 49.32 seconds. Leslie Rosario of Neosho County was second in 12:56.11.
Jacobs finished sixth in the race in 13:31.60. Whitetree ran in the race unattached and finished fifth in 13:27.37.
“Gabby ran a great race. She will be one of the region’s top runners this year and showed why with this performance,” DeGrado said. “Brianna was very impressive, running her first cross country race since her junior year.”
DeGrado said the Red Devil women didn’t run a complete team because of recovery injures and some athletes have been red-shirted to build up for next year’s team.
“We are currently laying the foundation on both sides this year. We just need to keep running and putting in the miles,” he said.
The Red Devil men have nine runners competing this year and two runners transferring from Cowley County, who have to redshirt. DeGrado said Ray Harwood of Cleveland, Ohio, and Ryan Pulsifer of West Chapel, Fla., were not released by Cowley County after following DeGrado to ACCC.
But the Red Devils are not without talent for 2011. Freshmen are Tegan Michael of Topeka West, Evan Adams of Ash Grove, Mo., Garrett Colglazier and Josh Whittaker of Santa Fe Trail High, Jake Spence of Baxter Springs, Camille Charvet of Auge, France, Josh Klubek of Iola, Gerald Christian of Royal Valley High School and Kyle Stromgren of Osage City.
Michael paced the Red Devils to a third-place finish Friday. He posted his personal-best time of 15:57.68 for the 5K and claimed second. Adams was fourth in 16:37.07 and Colglazier finished 11th in 16:55.54.
Whittaker placed 15th in 17:10.76 followed by Stromgren in 27th at 17:54.67, Spence in 32nd at 18:09.68, Charvet in 40th at 19:04.14 and Klubek in 46th at 22:24.16. Harwood ran unattached and was 14th in 17:02.62.
Amos Bowen of Garden City won the race in 15:48.99 and Kelvin Busienei was third in 16:06.78.
“Tegan really did a great job keeping himself in the race as those two runners have already had some college experience. So for Tegan to drop off then in the last mile come back to place second was great for his development,” DeGrado said. “Evan went out slower than I would have liked but came on strong in the last mile also.”
DeGrado said Colglazier, Harwood and Whittaker ran well in the second half of the race.
“Tegan will be one of the top runners in the region and conference. We look for him to compete for a conference title and top five in the region. I’m very pleased with our first showing. I truly believe we have something special started here. These kids came here with the purpose of starting something from scratch and I believe we got other schools’ attention,” DeGrado said.
DeGrado was the NJCAA Cross Country Coach of the Year in 2010 at Cowley County. He was at ACCC from 2005 to August 2007 before he went to Cowley County.
DeGrado had success coaching at Allen County that first stint. He had the Red Devil cross country and track programs on the upswing. During that time his athletes set or tied 22 school records, he coached nine NJCAA All-Americans and had 31 national meet qualifiers.
In 2006, Allen County had full cross country squads to enter in both men and women competition. The ACCC men finished ranked 22nd in the nation. Both men and women finished third in the Jayhawk Conference.
Joining DeGrado is new assistant coach Bryce Johnson who served the past two years as assistant cross country and track coach at Southwestern College in Winfield. Johnson ran one year of track at Independence Community College after graduating from Oswego High School.
Johnson is a former ACCC runner. He transferred to Allen County running cross country and track in 2007 then ran for Southwestern.