Men look to run first to the finish line

Conference this weekend

By Jon Gorzkowski
Courier Staff

While we were all sitting back and relaxing during Fall Break our Men’s Cross Country team stayed on the MC campus and were hard at work.

On Sat. Oct. 15, the Scots took a road trip to Lake Breeze Golf Course (Winneconne, WI) to participate in the UW-Oshkosh Invitational. 

Among the Scots fastest times were Anthony Welty, with a season best of 26:00, Darin VanNattan (27:12), and Seth Leitner (27:25). As for the Scots’ regular season, it is history. 

The team now has to look forward to the Midwest Conference Championship, which is being held this Sat. Oct. 29, at Oakland Acres Country Club in Grinnell, IA. 

When asked how the team is expected to perform, Head Coach Roger Hayes said, “I feel like the team is very ready to race at the MWC meet this weekend. Their training is progressing well and they should be well rested. The mental approach to preparing yourself to be your best is very important. It is about how well we do personally first, then we will compare our performances against others.” 

Senior Anthony Welty, has been a key runner throughout the team’s season and will hopefully represent Monmouth well by continuing his success at Conference.

When asked if he feels that the team has prepared enough to succeed in conference he replied, “Absolutely.  This cross country team has put forth more mileage and effort into our training than any other recent past Monmouth College cross country team.  I am confident we will have a number of All-Conference runners (runners who place in the top 20 at the conference championship meet) and even a few who can challenge for the individual conference championship.  The preparation is done.  Now it is just a matter of going to Grinnell and taking that preparation out on our competition.”

Some of the top teams Monmouth will be competing against this Saturday are Grinnell and Ripon, who are expected to have strong performances.

Good luck to the Men’s Cross Country team as they head into the Midwest Conference Championship this weekend.