2013 HL Cross Country Championships

[valporun]

Not expecting a whole lot of talk here, but as the resident cross country and track guy on the board, today was the HL Cross Country Championships hosted by Youngstown St. at a local high school course in Boardman, OH. I wasn't at the meet, but the men ran 8K and the women ran a 5K (why 5K? I don't know). Anyway, this was the first year since I was running at VU that the conference titles were up for grabs in the most open sense of the comment. In the Mid-Con/Summit days, it was always Southern Utah winning both titles. In the HL, it was Butler on both sides until they bolted, then last year Loyola swept both sides of the meet. This year, the men of Detroit Mercy won the title with 33 points, and the women of Youngstown State won with 36 points. Both races were won in seemingly dominant fashion by the Titans and the Penguins. In the case of Valpo, both the men and women were 7th overall in their races. Jessica Richardson was 7th overall, and garnered a 1st Team All Horizon League honor. David Rutkowski was the top finisher for the men with a 20th place run.

Not excited by another bottom of the pack race for the Crusaders cross country teams, but I hope with the investment in the new track that it will generate some more scholarship dollars to get some quality runners in to develop a true program, with something to proud of in the program again.

[valpotx]

Yes, let's hope that the programs improve with a true track on campus.  Congrats to Richardson!!