Bulldogs WIN!!!!!

Mens pre race huddle

The men’s and women’s McPherson College cross country teams captured the team titles at the McPherson College Open on Saturday, Oct. 10, at the McPherson Country Club.

“I am very pleased with how we competed today,” said McPherson coach Joe Eby. “To have both teams win at our home meet is exciting and sets us up well for the end of the season. I have been very pleased with the progress the team has shown so far. I still feel like we can get better, but I like what we have done at this point.”


Top 3 Kyle Smith, Shaun Griffin, Mike Baxter mid race

McPherson College was one of four teams at the meet.

The McPherson men’s team won the team title with three runners finishing in the top six. Shaun Griffin was the third finisher across the line in a time of 28:17 with teammate Kyle Smith right on his heel (28.36). Freshmen Mike Baxter was the third bulldog across with a time of 28:47 to come in sixth place out of 30 runners.

Sophomore David Parry and freshman Dan Meibaum rounded out the top five for the Bulldogs, with Perry finishing in 31:42 (15th) and Meibaum in 33:28 (19th).

The McPherson College women’s cross country team finished in a tie for first with Bethel College. Junior Brittany Delker continues to lead the Bulldogs, finishing fourth overall in a time of 22:12. Sophomore Katie Logan was the next Bulldog to finish, crossing the line in 23:17 (7th).


Kati Beam (23:42, 9th)

Sophomore Kati Beam (23:42, 9th), freshman Torey Fry (24:11, 11th) and freshman Paula Carpenter (24:30, 12th) finished out the top five for the Bulldogs.

Results can be found http://www.mcpherson.edu/athletics/crosscountry/09/schedule.asp


Group post race

Ceja and Martinez sign with Bulldogs

Martinez in gray and Ceja in Green will look much better in Red

Ruben Martinez and Javier Ceja signed with McPherson College on Saturday night following a 1, 2 finish at the McPherson Brooks Open. These two are going to bring a new intensity to the team. Ceja who has a PR of 14:40 in the 5k and Martinez who has a 15:10 5k PR will be contending for KCAC championships this spring in the 5k and 10k and potential All American status at the National meet. We are very excited to get them here in January and get them in the program.


Saturday night signing

Big weekend for the Bulldogs

With 30 days to go till the big KCAC meet, this weekend is a big weekend for the cross program. We are hosting our home meet, the Brooks Open at McPherson Country Club. Women's race goes off at 10:15 and men will race at 11:00. This meet will be a great test as we will see some teams we have yet to see so far this year, including a few conference schools.

There will be three top guy recruits on campus. Ruben Martinez makes a return to campus and he is bringing Javier Ceja who is also from LA, California with him. Joining those two on Saturday night will be Morgan Peterson from McPherson. A lot will be going on the next few days in McPherson, it is an great time to be a Bulldog

Marathon Pace workout

number 4-5 with coach Jilka on the way out.

On Tuesday we hit up the dirt roads for a marathon pace workouts. It has been great to see the progression of the athletes from week to week. We went further than we ever had for this run and looked controlled doing it. I am continually excited to see the progression and just thinking about what the future will bring for us.


Top 3 on way back

We are very fortunate to have these dirt roads within 1.5 miles of our track. Its perfect warmup/cooldown distance for us. Each block is a mile and the crop fields and tree lines mark the half mile, so we are able to get splits. We do all of our long runs out on the dirt roads and any tempo work. It is great having a marked out area with soft surfaces.

OSU Jamboree

We loaded up the Bus at 3:00 pm to head down to Stillwater. We had about a 3 hour ride and it went by quick. We arrived at the course with perfect weather outside.


We walked the back part of the course with the steps and hills. I really liked the course, thought it had a nice mix of hills, trails, grass, and wood chips. After a quick tour of the course we loaded back up on the bus and went to a Pasta dinner put on by the Stillwater HS team. They had good food and all proceeds went toward their program. Something we will do for years to come if they continue to put this event on.

Team after pasta dinner

Next it was off the hotel. Not the best hotel I have ever stayed in but we were only 15 min away from the course. Most of the evening was spent relaxing at the hotel due to an early morning the next day.

The team was up at 4 am for a shakeout run and Pancakes in the lobby. We loaded up the bus at 6 am to head over to the course. It was still dark out when we arrived on sight, but with the girls racing at 8:00 am i wanted to make sure we were there and they did not feel rushed getting ready for the race.


Course at 6:15 am

We had the a series of unfortunate events happen to our girls team this week. We had two freshman, Torey Fry and Paula Carpenter who were banged up to the point where they could have raced but I didn't want to risk setting them back for the upcoming weeks so we held both of them out. Kati Beam was in the school play and had to miss the meet and another girl who got sick on race day. So with our lack of depth to start with, all said and done we were only able to put 3 girls on the start line this weekend. The good part was the three girls ran well. Brittany Delker was our number 1 with 21:20 only 2 seconds off her PR, Katie Logan was our number 2 with a time of 21:42 almost a minute faster than Missouri Southern, and her time from last year and only 10 seconds off her PR.


Top Dog of the week Katie Logan finishing in a season best

Krissa Fuentes was our number 3 with a time of 24:47 which was faster than her Missouri Southern time 3 seconds off her PR and almost a minute faster than her time from 2008. So for all of the unfortunate events leading up to the race the ladies raced very well.


Men's Race start

Next up was the guys. The guys ran a good race but I am still waiting for all of our top 5 to put together a good race. We have had two solid weeks of training and workouts leading up to this meet. Shaun Griffin (the birthday boy) had a great race. Running 27:28 which was 59 seconds faster than his time from 2008. He was followed by Kyle Smith who had another solid performance running 27:48. Next in was Mike Baxter running 27:59, then Matt Brown who ran a seasons best on the tough course running 31:21 over 2 min faster than his time from 2008, and finishing up the scoring for the Bulldogs was David Parry with a time of 32:07. Dan Meibuam showed great improvement over his race at WSU running a 33:15 which is almost 6 min faster than his projected time from the Shockers race. Zach Dowling was the 7th man running 34:18 which was over a minute and half faster than his time from 2008. Fred Miller (39:05) and Ben Denton (44:49) also has solid performances for the Bulldogs. The men's team average time for the top 5 was 10 seconds faster this year over the 2008 team, so they are showing improvement across the board.

While at the meet I also had a chance to talk to one of our top girl recruits for next year Kylie Bourquin from Follett HS. We had a nice chat and she is excited to come for our overnight visit weekend.


Waiting for the Bus

All in all another good weekend. Next up is the McPherson Brooks Open. It will be a good smaller meet for us. We will get a chance to match up against some other conference schools that we have not seen yet, I am excited to see what we can do.