EAST LANSING, Mich. — Freshmen and transfer members of the cross country team are already making huge impacts on both the men’s and women’s squads. Two of the top five finishers in both of last Friday’s races at the Spartan Invitational had never competed in a Chargers uniform.
On the men’s side, transfer-sophomore Nick Fiene and freshman Joe Humes placed fourth and fifth. On the women’s side, freshman Arena Lewis placed third, while sick, with fellow freshman Addison Rauch coming in as the team’s fifth runner.
“I thought Joe Humes did a really nice job,” said Head Cross Country Coach Andrew Towne. “Nick Fiene is not a freshman for us obviously, but he’s new for us; he did a heck of a job for us in the top five.Arena Lewis: I’m going to go out on a limb and tell you that’s probably the worst she’s going to be all year. You could tell at two or three K that being sick all week had caught up to her.”
Stand-out performances by younger members of the team were high points in a first race which, while largely positive, was a mixed bag with a number of the runners being sick.
While Friday’s results were not a surprise to those who follow the team, the Spartan Invitation gave early indicators of what could be a very exciting season on both the men’s and women’s side.
The men were led by junior Tony Wondaal, who after a stand-out track season last spring, ran a solid first race, finishing 14th among national-caliber NCAA Division I and II athletes, including a number of athletes from the GLIAC.
Next was senior Caleb Gatchell, finishing 34th, and senior captain Joseph Newcomb, finishing 37th. Like Wondaal, both Gatchell and Newcomb also had stand-out track seasons.
Newcomb’s performance was especially impressive because while finishing two seconds faster than last year’s meet, he was also ill. If last cross country season is any indicator, he will be much closer to Wondaal in later races this season.
“Personally, I think I’m getting sick; I threw up at the finish line,” Newcomb said. “So, it wasn’t all there for me, but Tony and Gatchell looked like they were moving.”
Close behind Newcomb were Fiene and Humes, with the top seven being rounded out by sophomore Miles Garn and junior Nathan Jones who were sixth and seventh respectively.
The men’s performance was a big improvement over their race at Spartan last year with the average racing time of scoring runners dropping by almost 75 seconds. Additionally, the men placed ahead of all GLIAC and regional competition except for Grand Valley. After their performance last Friday, the men jumped from unranked to 11th nationally and second in their region in the most recent USTFCCCA coaches poll.
“I think we established top three [in the GLIAC] in that race,” Newcomb said.
Though all of the Charger men didn’t have their best race, a number of other teams in the Midwest regional also were not at 100 percent, including Southern Indiana.
The women showed a lot of toughness in their race, battling sickness, while also showing that they’re still a serious national contender after losing two All-Americans.
Similar to the men, senior captain Molly Oren, junior Hannah McIntyre, and sophomore Ally Eads will look to continue their track success from last Spring where all three went to the national meet.
Oren and McIntyre led the women finishing 16th and 17th respectively, with Lewis finishing in 37th.
“I’m happy with how I did overall. I think our team did well.” Oren said. “Personally, I know I got stuck in a pace in the middle and I need to remember to surge, break up the monotony and I was just by myself, so I have to remember to stick with the pack.”
Eads and Rauch rounded out the top five, with junior Amanda Reagle and senior Meri Didier placing sixth and seventh on the team.
Unlike the men, the women took a step back from last year’s performance, finishing in sixth instead of third, and with an average scoring time about 25 seconds slower.
Races later this year, when the women are at full strength, will show whether last Friday’s results were a fluke.
“I talked to a lot of girls and they just didn’t feel great,” Towne said. “If we’ve got to deal with that at some point, I’d rather it was today than November.
“I’m very excited as I said, just to get healthy, continue to go through the training process and really see, with a championship level race at Louisville, where we’re at in two weeks.”
The women finished behind GLIAC competition Grand Valley and regional opponent Southern Indiana, maintaining their seventh place national ranking, but falling to third in regional rankings in this week’s USTFCCCA coaches’ poll.
The teams will race next on Saturday, Oct. 1 at the Greater Louisville Classic in Louisville, Kentucky.
