The Lancer’s cross country team had a career day Oct. 1 at the Capitol Cross Challenge 8k in Sacramento, with six runners setting personal records, while finishing 4th overall as a team.
The Lancers came into the meet ranked No. 25 in the nation and sixth in the region but outperformed many of the teams ranked ahead of them, finishing fourth overall and second out of all Division II teams with a total of 129 team points.
The Lancer runners must have been perfectly prepared as six runners were running their career-bests that day. Mirco Zenzen (24:52.1), Michael Lowrie (24:57.1), Jayden Emerson (25:20.4) and James Atwell (25:20.4) all ran a stellar race and managed to set new personal records for themselves.
Meanwhile, the previous week’s PacWest Runner of the Week Dennis Messmer came up strong with a career-best time of 24:31.7, finishing 21st overall, and closely followed by William Ernst who took 23rd place with 24:33.3, also a career-best.
CBU cross country legend and senior Valentin Roberts once again led the Lancers with a strong performance, finishing sixth overall out of 173 runners, while not only setting his new personal best but also breaking the CBU school record with a time of 23:59.8.
Coach Benjamin Gall said he was impressed with Roberts’ performance,
“Valentin is an incredibly hard worker who has improved immensely in his time (at CBU),” Gall said. “He is a fierce competitor and passionate teammate who isn’t afraid to take risks and possibly fall short.”
Robert said he was satisfied with his performance as well.
“I am pretty happy with the race. It was great to run with some of the best runners in the West region and my performance was exactly what I was looking for in this race. I can be confident about the rest of the season,” Robert said.
The entire team expressed satisfaction with their accomplishments at the capitol cross and the team appears more confident than ever. Sophomore Michael Lowrie said, “Our team really stepped up and had a great day. We are really showing people what we can do now.”
The Lancers are getting ready to host the CBU Invitational Oct. 7, gearing up for the PacWest Championship in Hilo, Hawaii, Oct. 22.
“The most exciting thing to come out of last weekend is just an increased sense of excitement and confidence for the team,” Gall said. “They were focused but now they truly believe they can accomplish their goals. The athletes are fully bought in to the training and embracing their roles on the team. We believe we will be much stronger in a month when we head to Montana for the regional championship.”
