The Tigers fell just short in their quest to three-peat as conference champions in both the men and women’s races.
On Nov. 1, they hosted the conference meet in Boerne, Texas.
“[The course] was very challenging””there were some rolling hills, there were some tight turns.Honestly they all stuck to the plan pretty well. Colorado College just ended up being a better team on that day,” said head coach Emily Daum.
On the women’s side, Colorado College scored 26 points and Trinity was just three points behind with 29. The Trinity women competed with only one returner of the top five runners from last year’s championship team.
“I think over the season we’ve definitely become a more cohesive unit,” said sophomore Julia Torres. “We know who to stick with, and if someone is struggling, people are quick to go up and help them out.”
The team had three finishers in the top five, with senior Nicola Hill running a 24:08.800 to finish third; senior Michelle Oberndorf finishing just behind her with a time of 24:20.813 to finish fourth; and first year Melissa Whitman rounding out the top five with a time of 24:21.764.
The race winner was Leah Wessler of Colorado College with a time of 23:17.
Six Tiger women earned All-SCAC honors including Hill, Oberndorf and Whitman, as well as senior Autumn Kervella who placed eighth (24:40); first year Emma Maceachern who placed ninth (24:41); and junior Mariana Sigala who finished 14th (25:11).
Whitman also received the SCAC Women’s Freshman of the Year award after four top-10 finishes in six meets this season, including her fifth place finish in the conference meet.
On the men’s side, junior Taylor Piske had the fastest 8k in the conference, coming into the weekend posting a time of 25:06.7 at the Incarnate Word Invitational.
He finished with a time of 27:25 this weekend to take second place in the meet. The individual winner for the men was Nick Hall of Colorado College with a time of 26:37.
As a team, they finished eight points behind Colorado College; they scored 38 points to Colorado College’s 30 points in the 8k event.
“Our strategy was if you see any jersey of yellow in front of you””or any jersey that is not maroon””that you’re supposed to catch them, stay with them and then try to beat them at the end,” said sophomore Austin Brown.
This strategy seemed to wor well for them as five Tigers earned All-SCAC honors including Piske; first year Michael Erikson who finished fourth (27:57); Brown who finished fifth (27:58); junior Christian Soto who was 13th (28:48); and first year Daniel Henkes who placed 14th (28:54).
Erikson was also named SCAC Men’s Freshman of the Year for his work this season and in the conference meet.
“We have a young team, and [Colorado College is] losing two of their top five and we’re not losing any of our top five; we’ve got a lot of potential still,” Brown said.
On Nov. 15, both Tiger teams run at the NCAA Division III South/Southeast Regional Championships in Berry, Ga., which features competition from Emory University (Ga.), Rhodes College (Tenn.), Bridgewater College ( Va.) and others.
