BETHANY, W.Va. - Both the Lawrence Technological (Mich.) university men's and women's cross country teams survived messy course conditions at the Bethany University Invitational this past Saturday. The meet was held on the college campus located in Bethany, West Virginia at their equestrian complex. Evening rain and storms made the course conditions muddy during the day, and in many parts of the course, ankle deep water puddles.
In the men's race, Alex Towianski was the top finisher for the Blue Devils, placing 16th out of 159 runners. His time was 28:41 for the 8k distance which helped the team place 6th, with 18 teams competing overall. He was followed by Malik Jordan (SR/Wayne, Mich.) who finished 23rd with a run of 29:09. The rest of the team stayed close together, including John Bowen II(JR/Williamston, Mich.) who was right on Jordan's tail with a time of 29:45 coming in 28th, along with Brody Sodon (FR/Firecrest, Wash.) who came in 30th with a time of 29:51 and Ian Lamphear(FR/Utica, Mich.) who came in 34th finishing at 30:07.
Green hoped to see the men run through these conditions with a pack forming before the invitational, and they almost succeed. While this meet may not be entirely a great reflection for the future due to the less than ideal weather and course conditions, it was a great experience for Green and his team, "I finally got to see what kind of team we had after losing so many of our leaders last year to graduation. It was very exciting to see both Alex and Malik pushing each other through the messy conditions with the next five guys on the team not very far from them running as a pack. If we can continue to run like that for the rest of the season, we will do very well at conference." These returners are very impactful, but it's the newcomers who have the biggest adjustment, and, according to Green, they did well, "Another thing was seeing how my two freshman responded to their first ever college 8k race. Both Brody and Ian finished top five for us ahead of the rest of our upper classman on the team, which is impressive in its own right."
Both teams compete at the MSU invitational in East Lansing hosted by Michigan State next Friday, September 14.
