News

By Ryan Schlehuber, MCC Sportswriter

The Montcalm Community College Centurions women’s cross country team tested its mettle against a few “higher end” teams at the Wayne State University (WSU) Warrior Challenge at Willow Metropark in Wayne County, Friday, Sept. 12. 

The 10-team race featured many teams from larger schools, which Centurions’ head coach Nate “Q” Van Holten said would be a good measure for his young women’s team. MCC’s men’s team did not compete owing to illness and injury, according to Van Holten. 

Freshman Abby Davis (Vestaburg, Mich.) topped MCC’s team, finishing 23rd out of 115 competitors with a time of 23 minutes, 52.5 seconds in the 6K race. Taking first place overall was Findlay’s Lauren Sattler, with a time of 22:28.6, followed by Wayne State’s Ava Peters (22:33.0) and Findlay’s Sarah Reinhart (22:39.0).  

As a team, Findlay took the meet with a score of 37, followed by WSU with 45 and Saginaw Valley State University with 49. MCC finished 10th with 259.  

Van Holten was looking forward to seeing how Davis stacked up against larger school competition, however, her results were not what he was expecting. 

“She’s never run a 6K before,” Van Holten said. “It was not as good as she should have run.”

Davis said the toughest part of the race was the course itself.

“The multiple loops and the biggest hill I ever ran up three times,” Davis said. “Also, the meet was competitive. The top 15 girls had 5K (personal records) close to mine or faster.”

Davis had a strategy as she was running but, with a challenging course, top-rate competitors and experiencing a new distance, it was tough to overcome it all.

“I was trying to focus on the front without dying too early from that hill, which was hard to maintain,” Davis said. “I knew this was not my best performance, but I try to keep in mind it was a hard course with hard conditions that day. I was new to a 6K race so I am sure I could bring that time down in the future.

“I’m just happy I got through it,” she added.

Rounding out MCC’s scoring was Mackenzie Zahm, 27:45.3 (86th); Hannah Reed, 28:21.2 (92nd); Joslyn Dickman, 29:41.6 (101st); Karly Fisk, 32:03.9 (111th); and Lilyanrose Martin, 32:16.6 (112th). 

Van Holten is hoping his teams ratchet up their efforts as they prepare for the MCCAA Northern Conference Meet, which will be held at Camp Pet-O-Se-Ga in Alanson, Mich., at 1 p.m., Friday, Sept. 26. 

“If we want to accomplish anything, we’ll have to be much better than what we performed at WSU,” Van Holten said. “We need to be more positive, be more aggressive and we need to take a risk.” 

Davis said she has faith in her team to perform up to the best of their abilities to finish out the season. 

“I am looking forward to the upcoming meets,” she said. “We have a conference and regional meet that I think, as a team, we could place really well in. I am also excited to race at nationals at the end of the season.” 

UP NEXT: After the Sept. 26 MCCAA meet, the Centurions will have two more meets, the Muskegon Jayhawk Invitational at University Park Golf Course in Muskegon, at noon, Saturday, Oct. 11, and the MCCAA / NJCAA Region XII Championship, which will be held at Goodells County Park in Goodells, Mich., Friday. Oct. 24. Start time is yet to be determined.