Cross country eyes national competition
Matt Wilhalme
The MCC cross country team is focusing on winning a qualifying position in the Region I Championship in order to earn an appearance at the National Junior College Athletic Association National Cross Country Championship. In what Head Coach Eamonn Condon calls a rebuilding year, the men’s and women’s teams have performed exceptionally well.
The women’s team recently took second place in the Arizona Community College Athletic Conference Championship on Sept. 26, putting them in a comfortable position to qualify for the NJCAA National Cross Country Championship Nov. 3-5 in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Samantha Meyerhoff, an 18-year-old women’s team leader, said she feels comfortable practicing for the regionals because she has been running at Kiwana’s Park, where the regional meet will be held, since she was in high school.
“Our goal is to peak athletically at nationals and not worry too much about the early races, because everyone gets to run at the regional championship for a chance to go to the national competition,” Condon said.
However, after suffering some injuries, the women’s team is now down to five competitors for the regional championship where all five of their individual scores will count for the teams final placing.
The other healthier teams will be at an advantage because at the regional and national competition teams are allowed to have seven runners, with their top five score counting to the final score.
“I think we will be ready for regionals but the question is where we will place. As far as for me personally, I am ready fornationals, I just want to go and compete,” Meyerhoff said.
“We’re precarious there to keep everyone healthy maybe get one of our injured runners back, but there will be more sweating there even though they are in a good qualifying position,” Condon said.
The men’s team also did very well at the ACCAC Championship, taking fifth place, which would be good enough to take them to the national championship if it were the regional competition.
The men’s team was able to take that position at the ACCAC meet by a single point over Scottsdale Community College.
“Cross country is a big mental game; in the races you’re going hard thinking, I have another two miles to go and I still need to beat these guys, telling your body you need to go when your bodie’s dead,” Burton said.
“They are in a precarious position at the moment,” Condon said.
“We know that other teams are out there early in the morning saying ‘Mesa Arizona’.”
Condon believes that the teams sucess will come down to what kind of effort MCC’s team puts in during their 5:30 a.m. practices that run six days a week up to the regional competition.
“At the end of the day, to be over with the work out and say I gave it my all, I didn’t hold back, and you just keep going, there is nothing you can do,” Meyerhoff said.
Leadership on both the men’s and women’s teams has really made a difference this season, according to Condon.
At the beginning of the season both teams had a lot of people drop out within the first week for one reason or another .
“It seems that we actually benefitted from the quick loss of all the dead wood,” said Condon with a smile and a nod to the effort of his freshman runners.
“Our leadership tends to be mostly leadership by example, it’s not like football where someone is shouting telling them where to go, well occasionally there is shouting.
