No Qualifier, This Year, for the Cross-Country National Championship

The Regional is the race that matters the most of all races on the cross-country schedule and after the regional the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs will not have any representatives at the NCAA D-II National Championship. Mike English placed 29 in the men's race and was 22 seconds short of gaining an individual qualifying spot to the National Championship.

Most of the Mountain Lion runners are freshman or sophomores, especially with the men, where all five scoring runners will be returning next year. So, there is much to forward to after UCCS cross-country gained some valuable race experience. Today's team races and individual runners were good but they have not yet ascended to the great level, which is what it takes to get through the strongest regional in NCAA D-II.

The men's race was the first one on the day. All the Mountain Lion men ran better then last year despite weather being much colder and windier then it was a year ago. English lead the men in the 10,000 meter with a 29th overall finish in a time of 32:22.57. Sam Feldotto, had his best race on the season with a race time of 33:08.77, good for 43rd overall. Then there was freshman Ryan Derrick, who ran his first cross-country 10,000 meter, came in with a time of 33:49.57, good for 57th overall. Then men's placed 9th in the team standing with a team score of 265. Additionally, there were two UCCS men that ran in the open 10,000 meter race. Josh Jones finished with a time of 34:49 and Ian Penn came in with a time of 35:02. Seven of top 8 UCCS men will be returning, so they certainly will be a force to be reckoned with at next year regional. Look for this team to be running at the National Championship in Spokane, WA next fall. Also, look for English, Feldotto and Derrick to each have a strong track season this spring.

9.   265  UC-Colo. Spgs.                  (  33:30.59  2:47:32.95)

==============================================

  1     29  Mike English SO                     32:22.57

  2     43  Sam Feldotto SO                     33:08.77

  3     57  Ryan Derrick FR                     33:49.57

  4     64  Michael Johnson JR                  33:56.87

  5     72  William Edwards FR                  34:15.17

  6   ( 87) Ted Schultz SO                      35:01.22

  7   ( 91) Chris Reynolds SR                   35:10.52

 

For the Women's race, at the conference championship senior Kaitlin Frier ran her best college race, unfortunately she was not able to do it in back to back races. Frier led with UCCS women in the 6,000 meter race with a time of 24:01.50 good for 63rd overall. The entire pack of Mountain Lions women finished with a range of one minute and seven seconds. That was some solid pack running. The women placed 14th in the team standing with team score of 375 but with five of the top seven coming back, next year at the Regional they should be making a lot more noise.

14.   375  UC-Colo. Spgs.                  (  24:21.72  2:01:48.60)

==============================================

  1     63  Kaitlin Frier SR                    24:01.50

  2     70  Veronica Sandoval FR                24:16.10

  3     74  Melissa Buchanan SO                 24:18.60

  4     77  Alicia Del Pardo SR                 24:24.00

  5     91  Natalie Miller FR                   24:48.40

  6   ( 95) Madison Neher FR                    24:56.10

  7   (101) Sara Kettelkamp SO                  25:08.36

  

So, this closes out the 2010 cross-country season for the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs. There will be much optimism next summer going into the 2011 season for both the Mountain Lion men's and women's teams.