News

By Ryan Schlehuber 

MCC sportswriter 

SIDNEY — The old saying goes, “If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best.” 

For Montcalm Community College Centurions freshman cross country runner Abby Davis (Vestaburg, Mich.), she proved to be the best at the MCCAA Northern Conference Meet, held at Camp Pet-O-Se-Ga campground in Emmett County, Sept. 26, taking first place with a finish time of 18 minutes, 44.25 seconds in the 5,000-kilometer run.  

Even more impressive, Davis beat out the NJCAA’s then-No. 1-ranked runner, Tatum Dysktra, of Muskegon Community College, who finished second at 19:01.82. 

“It felt really good to win the Northern Conference meet,” said Davis, who was named MCCAA’s Athlete of the Week and Athlete of the Year. “I felt relieved to beat one of my main competitors of NJCAA Division II. It is nice we are in the same conference, and I get to race with her before the big national meet. I think that really helps me feel more confident and less anxious going into the national meet.” 

The MCCAA Region 12 Championship meet is Friday, Oct. 24, at Goodells County Park in Goodells, Mich. 

“We thought it would be a good race for Abby, going up against one of the best runners in the country,” Centurions head coach Nate “Q” Van Holten said. “She got to go head-to-head with her and it went pretty well.” 

Van Holten had a game plan for Davis before the race, which she pulled off beautifully.  

“I had a five-point plan that she nailed to a tee,” Van Holten said. “She pretty much did exactly how we planned it.” 

Davis said the plan was to shadow Dysktra. 

“The plan was to stick behind the No. 1 runner in the race for at least a mile and then try to build enough confidence to pass her,” Davis said. “I passed her with around 1,000 kilometers left and from there I kept gaining some more ground.” 

Davis is currently 5th in the NJCAA DII individual women’s rankings and Dykstra and Davis are No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in Region 12. 

Davis said getting to compete with elite runners like Dykstra and finding success in the head-to-head competitions has really helped her mental game, which she believes will help her with MCC’s next meet, the Muskegon Jayhawk Invitational at Muskegon’s University Park Golf Course, this Saturday, which will begin at 12 noon. 

“I have been working on confidence and gaining excitement going into the Muskegon race,” Davis said. “I will be racing with Wayne State again and some fast girls, so it will be a good time for some redemption. I’m excited to test my limits again.” 

As a team, the Centurions took second place, with a score of 72, finishing behind Muskegon (35) and ahead of Kirtland (86). 

“We figured we’d be second and that’s what we were shooting for,” Van Holten said, pointing out Muskegon was the running favorite to win the event. “Overall, our team did well.” 

Freshman Mackenzie Zahm (Belding, Mich.) finished 11th overall with a time of 21:06.56, freshman Mickiah Allbee (Vestaburg, Mich.) finished 17th with a time of 21:53.15; Hannah Reed (Cedar Springs, Mich.) finished 22nd with a time of 22:40.82; Lilyanrose Martin’s time of 24:17.35 was good for 29th place; and Karly Fisk (Sand Lake, Mich.) finished at 24:31.01, good for 31st place. 

Van Holten has been impressed with Martin (Ionia, Mich.) lately, as she has managed to earn a PR (personal record) in each meet she has competed in. 

“She’s improved three minutes on her personal record,” Van Holten said. “The first PR was two minutes and this last meet, she shaved it another minute. So she continues to really improve and it’s nice to see.” 

In the men’s 8,000-kilometer run, MCC finished last out of seven teams as Muskegon won the meet with a score of 44, followed by Kirtland with 85 and Bay College with 87. MCC finished with 165 points.  

The Centurion men’s team currently only has one full-time runner, which is Keegan Shafer (Vestaburg, Mich.), a freshman who finished in 19th place at the Northern Conference meet, finishing with a time of 31:12.61, improving his PR. First place went to Drew Moore of Mid Michigan, who finished with a time of 27:02.39, and Lloyd Laninga of Muskegon took second (27:10.51). 

Other MCC runners included Zhian Briggs (Augusta, Ga.) (32nd, 38:48.66); Gavin Cornwell (Morley, Mich.) (35th, 39:22.40); Andrew Badder (Imlay City, Mich.) (39th, 44:49.35); and Jayden Phillips (Big Rapids, Mich.) (40th, 54:36.65). 

Van Holten believes Shafer has another gear in him as far as cross country racing goes. 

“I think he can run under 30; it’s a minute improvement,” Van Holten said. “Everything he’s doing says he can do that. It’s just a matter of putting it all in a race.” 

The Muskegon Jayhawk Invitational this Saturday is the final regular season meet for MCC, which Van Holten said will be an excellent warm-up to the regional championship meet. 

“This will be a sort of pre-regional meet as a lot of the teams in our region will be at this meet,” Van Holten said. “So, it’s sort of a preview of what we’ll see in two weeks. It’s a good early match-up to see how we fare against these teams.” 

Van Holten said many of the teams from Michigan competing in the Jayhawk Invitational are ranked, which will give his women’s team a goal to shoot for. 

“I think we’re aiming to get closer to those teams and or actually beat one of those teams,” Van Holten said. “That course is fast and we’re expecting cooler temperatures, which equals faster times, so we’re eager to see what we can do.”