By Jonathan Sawyer
Assistant Sports Editor
The men’s and women’s cross country teams weren’t able to come out of the Little 3 Invitational victorious, but they came out with positive thoughts about the race and the upcoming season, said Head Coach Bob MaFarlane.
“We are looking for improvement,” said MacFarlane. “They all want to do well, they all work very hard and they are all working to get better and that’s our strength and they are willing to do and sacrifice what they need to do to get better.”
Top female runner Kerry Caher placed 2nd second overall while battling an ankle injury. She said even though the pain was excruciating, she knew she had to finish the race.
“Part of the beauty of the sport is that it hurts, and you have to stay mentally tough,” Caher said. “Looking at my watch at each mile and seeing how far off my time was than I had anticipated was certainly discouraging, but even if I couldn’t run as fast as I should have been able to, I knew I could make it to the finish line.”
Next to Caher, freshmen Rachel Guyer placed 12th overall in her first collegiate race and freshman Emily Izydorczak finished right behind the freshmen coming in 13th overall.
Looking at the race overall, Caher said she wasn’t disappointed at all with the second place finish and was pleased and impressed with some of the freshmen.
“Overall, I was very pleased with how the girls performed,” Caher said. “It was a very hot day and the first race is always difficult mentally. I was particularly impressed with some of the freshmen girls. They showed guts out there.”
Ben Collins, a redshirt sophomore, led the charge for the Bonnies, finishing 15th overall.
“I would have to say it’s a mixture between a good summer of training, a great camp week with the team, and also the student section we had this past Saturday,” Collins said. “I have to give a big shout out to them; it was great! It’s not often you get a student section at a cross-country race. I loved it.”
Finishing right behind Collins was sophomore Caleb Johnson, finishing in 15th and senior Joe Ferencik finishing 25th overall.
“First race is under the belt and we know where everyone is at, so we can train a little bit more accordingly with our paces,” Ferencik said. “Any race experience is good experience.”
MacFarlane said he was pleased with both the men’s and women’s teams and is looking for an improving season for both teams.
“It’s a young season right now, and we are looking to improve all the way through,” MacFarlane said about the women’s team. “A lot of the guys have stepped up from last year, especially our freshman Caleb Johnson did very well,” MacFarlane said about how the men’s team did this past weekend.
The UB Stampede is this weekend, and Caher believes that running together is a key to the Bonnies’ success.
“Now that we all have one race under our belts, we are able to look at what needs improvement. I think we could do a better job of running as a pack,” Caher said. “Our second, third, and fourth runners were fairly close in time, and if they could work together and close those gaps a little bit I think we will see dramatic improvements in the overall results.”
Collins says the team needs to take one day at a time.
“We need to make sure we focus on one day at a time,” Collins said. “A great season isn’t made in one day. It takes consecutive days of hard work to have a great season.”
The men’s and women’s cross country team will both travel to Buffalo to compete in the UB Stampede Invitational tomorrow. The gun goes off for the women’s team at 11:30 a.m. and the men at 12:15.
Caher will not compete this weekend and hopes to be back soon
