Allen Community College’s cross country season ends with the NJCAA Half-Marathon Classic in Topeka Saturday, and with a chance at redemption for the Red Devil runners.
The men’s team took ninth at the NJCAA Championship in Lubbock, Texas, Nov. 8, just short of head coach DeGrado’s hopes of finishing in the top six.
Now, the runners have a chance to head to the offseason on a high note.
“It’s normally a week after nationals, I don’t know why they made it two weeks this year,” DeGrado said. “But, I’m kind of happy because it should give us an even better shot. How it works, is for normal cross country they’ll score top-five runners, but for a half-marathon they score three.”
By “normal cross country,” DeGrado refers to the 8-kilometer — slightly less than 5 miles — meets the team competed in during the season. Runners will take on a 13.1-mile course in the half-marathon.
DeGrado is bringing Pedro Montoya, Brock Artis and Trail Spears. They were the top-three runners on the team this season. He also is bringing Diego Sanchez and Connor Immenschuh as back-up runners.
“I’ve already got a big, heavy 1-2 punch (between Montoya and Artis) and I think with the way Trail’s been running, we’ve got a serious chance to win,” DeGrado said. “You can’t predict a half-marathon, so I’d rather have it be cold and as hilly as it can be. The course that we’re going to is fairly up-and-down. The worse the conditions, the better. I want it to be the worst that they can find because we are going to run it, anyway.”
DeGrado said the team will fare well and it should come down to Allen and two schools from Texas — South Plains and El Paso. Each of those schools placed higher at nationals, but that won’t matter when it comes to running the 13.1 mile race. Last season, Allen took fourth.
“But, just because someone beats you in cross country doesn’t mean they’ll beat us in a half,” DeGrado said. “It’s way longer. Chances are a lot of coaches will just take mileage away (from training) and let their athletes peak, I don’t believe in that.”
DeGrado said other coaches won’t run heavy workouts for this meet because they think their runners do better after “peaking” or hit their potential. DeGrado said that the only way to get better is to keep working out.
This cold weather will benefit Allen, DeGrado said. Forecasts call for temperatures in the 40s, lower than most Texas runners are accustomed.
After Saturday, the cross country season will officially come to an end. But, indoor track season arrives in January.
ACC cross country prepares for final meet of season
