Lakeside shootout

We hosted the first annual Lakeside Shootout this past weekend and it was a successful event.

We had a great crowd out to cheer the athletes on. The feed back on the course was very positive. spectators like how easy it was to view everything.


Payton and Kelsi in chase pack.

The womens race was first with Karissa Cominator of Friends going stright to the lead which she kept the whole race. Freshman Kelsi Beam (McPherson, Kan.) was McPherson’s top finisher with a time of 20:15 to finish sixth overall, while fellow freshman Payton Hartman (Smithville, Mo.) completed the race in eighth position with a time of 20:23. Hartman’s time matches her season-best from Oklahoma State. The Bulldog women finished in third place behind KCAC rival Friends University and Fort Hays State University. McPherson had four runner finish in the top 25, including Erin Loeffler (North Newton, Kan.) (21:01) in 14th and Ashley Huizar (La Puente, Calif.) (21:59) 23rd place. Sophomore Torey Fry (Wichita, Kan.) finished just outside of the top 40 with a time of 25:04. Overall the women competed very well and took a good step forward toward the conference meet. We still have some things that we need to work on, but we have time.

Bulldog junior Javier Ceja (Pico Rivera, Calif.) won his first individual title in a McPherson jersey with a time 25:55.30. Ceja previously won the individual crown as an unattached athlete at the J.K. Gold Classic hosted by Wichita State University. Ceja shaved approximately nine seconds of his previous season-best of 26:04. Overall for the men, Ceja led McPherson to a team score of 31 points, eight points better than second place Fort Hays State University. McPherson’s four other runners finished in the top 20, with freshman Morgan Peterson (McPherson, Kan.) (28:06 PR) finishing 10th, David Parry (Morganville, Kan.) (28:24 PR) coming in 11th, Mike Baxter (Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio) (28:51) placing 17th and Kyle Smith (Junction City, Kan.) (29:12) finished 20th. Like the ladies the guys competed much better and were battling with people from other schools. The guys made a nice statement and have lots of positives to take from the meet. It is always good to get a win as a team and as an individual.

The major glitch of the whole meet was the course ended up being long. When I initially measured the course it was short by about 30 meters, we then remeasured and it was right on 2000 meters. So we started to paint and put posts up over the next few days. Somewhere in the mist of all of that the course became about 20 meters per lap long. This is something that can be easily fixed. We hope to grow this meet into a quality event, and potentially bring in some more ranked teams. We have some work to do between now and then.

All in all I was pleased with how things went and we will plan on hosting the KCAC Championships there next year.