Jess Clark Nov. 15, 2008

Dutch close year at regional

OAKLAND ACRES—The Central College men’s and women’s cross country seasons came to a close Saturday at the NCAA Division III Central Regional at Oakland Acres Golf Course near Grinnell where the women placed 13th and the men placed 18th in 26-team fields.  

Wartburg, the top-ranked team in the Central region, won the women’s meet with 92 points, followed closely by Luther (95), St. Thomas (Minn.) (117), Bethel (Minn.) (165), Carleton (170) and Loras (172). The Dutch finished with 368 points.

Amber Mayer (junior, Essex, Shenandoah HS) continued her strong finish to the season, leading Central while placing 50th in 24:08 on muddy 6,000-meter course as wind chills dipped into the 20s.

“Amber has finished the season off really well which is just what we would like to have all of our runners do,” said coach Stephen Fyfe. “I hope she goes into next year with confidence from what she’s done.”

After spending the season as Central’s front-runner, Jess Clark (senior, Port Byron, Ill., Riverdale HS) finished 61st (24:17), and two-time national qualifier Angie Berry (junior, Norwalk) failed to qualify for her third trip to the NCAA Division III meet,  finishing 72nd (24:34).

“Jess (Clark) came down with a really bad cold before the meet which is hard to see in her senior season,” said Fyfe, who noted that Berry battled health problems throughout the season as well.

Connie Eshelman (senior, Bridgewater, Nodaway Valley HS) was 92nd (25:03), Amy Ledvina (junior, Tama, South Tama HS) was 93rd (25:05), freshman Melanie Louis (Davenport, Central HS) finished 125th (25:54) and Hannah Anderson (junior, Goodell, Garner-Hayfield HS) was 156th (27:42).

On the men’s side, Neb. Wesleyan took the crown with 130 points, followed by St. John’s (Minn.) (149) and St. Olaf (Minn.) (148). The rest of the top 10 included Grinnell (167), Loras (182), St. Thomas (Minn.) (195), Luther (202), Bethel (Minn.) (202), Hamline (211) and Carleton (249). Central had 475.

Pierre Taylor (junior, Oswego, Ill.) led the Dutch in every race of the season, placing 65th Saturday in 27:12 on the 8,000-meter course.

“I don’t think Pierre ran great today, but he ran solid and he was consistent all year long,” said Fyfe.

After Taylor, it was a quartet of seniors who rounded out the scoring for Central in their final race. Jaron Byrum (New London) was 84th (27:37), Derek Townsend (Perry) was 105th (28:19), Tyler Husak (Tama, South Tama HS) was 106th (28:19) and Brandon Williams (Coralville, Iowa Mennonite HS) was 115th (28:38). Andrew Hamer (freshman, Murray) (29:27) and James Armstead (senior, Greenfield, Nodaway Valley HS) (29:31) also ran, finishing 139th and 142nd respectively.

“We felt we were ready to go,” said Fyfe. “But we didn’t get the results we wanted today.”

For the first time since 2005, Central will not be sending any runners to the NCAA Division III meet, which will be held at Hanover, Ind.

“I think we had some good seniors on both sides this year,” said Fyfe of the eight graduating members of the men’s and women’s teams. “They worked very hard for us.”