Women Collect Second At Dickinson Long-Short, Men Fifth
Junior Jacklyn VanArsdale finished first in the 4K event for the women.

Carlisle, PA — Taking a break from the normal routine of things, the Messiah cross country program turned in some solid results at Saturday’s Dickinson College Long-Short Invitational. The Falcons’ women finished second overall while the men collected an overall fifth-place result.

Scoring for the meet was accumulated through a pair of races for each gender: The women partaking in 4K and 6K events while the men ran in 4K and 8K distances. The top three runners from each run accounted for team scoring, leaving some strategic decisions to head coach Dale Fogelsanger.

The end result was a third-place finish in both the long and short races for the women, equating out to a second-place finish overall when both scores were cumulated. The men finished seventh in the 4K event and fifth in the traditional, 8K length — results that added up to a fifth-place finish overall.

“For the athletes, this is a fresh change of pace,” Fogelsanger said following the day’s four races. “It’s a benefit when you look at our schedule overall. It’s nice for freshmen not to be running that long every week. Strategically speaking, you’ve got coaches that will try to load one race or the other in hopes of getting the best team finish possible, but we basically tried to have our freshman compete in the shorter races for training purposes.”

Fogelsanger’s approach proved to be worthwhile in the final standings, as 19 of Messiah’s total 34 short-race runners — both men and women combined — were underclassmen. Junior Jacklyn VanArsdale led the women’s short-course effort in a 15:07.24 clip (10th overall), while freshman Tyler Newhook paced the men in a 12:37.43 pace (16th overall).

Messiah was led by its two senior staples in the traditional races, as senior Frank Eanes finished eighth overall in the men’s 8K (26:31.99) while classmate Jenny Kooser claimed second overall in the women’s 6K (22:27.16).

For Kooser, the end result may have been slightly off her individual championship in last year’s meet, but her time was not: Kooser ran a 23:26 pace in 2007.

“Jenny really had a strong effort today in the 6K,” Fogelsanger said. “In the shorter distances, our freshman really represented us well.”

Messiah’s scoring in the women’s 4K was comprised of VanArsdale’s team-best clip, followed by freshman Mary Higgins (15th overall, 15:20.78) and junior Courtney Long (19th overall, 15:26.52). On the men’s short track, Newhook was complemented by junior Peter Shenk (18th overall, 12:39.61) and sophomore Ryan Pastore (53rd overall, 13:12.28).

Long-race scoring was rounded out on the women’s side by junior Inna Potekhina (12th overall, 23:47.17) and junior Erin Rhodes (17th overall, 24:03.79). Junior Cory Kaufman (18th overall, 27:05.94) and junior Jeffrey Smeiles (37th overall, 27:36.19) constituted the men’s 8K scoring contingent.

Messiah bettered 14 schools on the overall men’s totals, while the Falcons’ women finished higher than 13 programs. An extremely large event on all accounts, schools seemed to take advantage of the 4K races most: Exactly 187 men and 197 women competed in the 4K events; 192 men and 91 women ran in the traditional courses.

“I think today’s results proved that we’re a versatile team,” Fogelsanger said. “It was neat to see the freshmen compare their (4K) times to what they were running in high school meets last year (two miles), and the improvements they’ve made. I think this meet will help validate our rankings in the region.”

Messiah will await those new rankings Wednesday, and will then host its lone home meet of the season Saturday, as both Gettysburg College and Juniata College visit campus for the Messiah Invitational. Women are slated to begin at 10:30 a.m. while the men are scheduled for an 11 a.m. start.