MEMPHIS — Allen Community College’s cross country runners dealt with warm, humid conditions in their competition Friday at the Brooks Memphis Twilight Classic. FRIDAY’S RUN marked an improvement for several Allen runners, DeGrado said.
Even though organizers postponed the start of the meet an hour — the women didn’t start until 9:40 p.m., the men until 10:20 — temperatures still were in the mid to upper 80s.
With relative humidity in the 60 percent range, “it was pretty wet,” ACC coach Vince DeGrado said.
Even so, Allen put forward several solid numbers, enough to keep DeGrado convinced his men’s and women’s teams are on the right track.
“This meet really exposed how young and immature our team is so far,” DeGrado said. “You could tell the schools that beat us took running in the summer a little more seriously than all of our athletes. We’re not quite fit yet, but our upside is tremendous. We haven’t come close to our potential, which I’ll be honest, is very scary. Time and the season will tell.”
The men had another curveball to contend with.
Organizers inadvertently sent the men along the wrong route briefly, adding about .18 of a mile to their run. So instead of running the prescribed 4.2 miles, runners actually went about 4.38 miles.
“Just something else to deal with,” DeGrado said.
On the men’s side, ACC’s Brandon Bernal brought home 18th overall out of 173 runners with a time of 22 minutes, 14.75 seconds. Kyle Schauvliege finished 34th at 22:39.38. Diego Sanchez and Angel Vasquez were 50th and 54th respectively to round out the top for the Red Devils.
On the women’s side, ACC’s Danae McGee brought home 46th in a time of 19:55.59. The women ran a 5K.
“The women ran well,” DeGrado said. “This was their first 5K of the season, which is much sooner than what I’m used to running this time of year.”
Unofficially, the Red Devil men finished seventh of 16 teams, while the women took ninth. The competition featured nine NCAA Division I schools, six Division 3 or NAIA teams and a pair of NCAA Division II squads.
Team results were considered unofficial because organizers did not include NJCAA Division II squads in the final standings, including Allen. DeGrado took the Red Devils’ marks and compared them with the other teams to get ACC’s unofficial team places.
“In our first meet of the year, I thought we ran good, average and below average for some of our runners,” he said. “For this race, some ran great, others good and others average.”
The next three weeks will be key to Allen unlocking its potential. The team does not race again until Sept. 21 at the Missouri Southern Stampede in Joplin.
“I’m hoping we’ll see an entirely different team by the time we go to Missouri Southern,” he said.
From there are races in Stillwater, Okla., Hays and El Dorado before the Region VI and Jayhawks Conference meet in Hutchinson, when DeGrado hopes the Red Devils are at their peak.
“That’s our goal,” he said.
John Valentine of Mississippi State University won the men’s race with a time of 21:08.62, while Brooke Cassar of Central Arkansas won the women’s race in 17:26.81.
As an aside, two former Allen runners, Tegan Michael and Brock Artis, also ran as unattached competitors. Michael finished 10th overall in 22:00.33; Artis in 46th at 23:02.81.
Allen’s individual results follow.
Brooks Memphis Twilight Classic
Women (5K)
46. Danae McGee, 19:55.59
90. Mahalia Soap, 21:30.34
95. Alisn Stevens, 21:48.69
109. Tirzah Soap, 22:23.32
117. Caitlin Boeckman, 23:06.37
Men (4.38-mile)
18. Brandon Bernal, 22:14.75
34. Kyle Schauvliege, 22:39.38
50. Diego Sanchez, 23:09.87
54. Angel Vasquez, 23:13.78
60. Ryan Pulsifer, 23:22.86
64. Patrick Rachford, 23:27.86
74. Tucker Morgan, 23:40.78
75. Dallas Snider, 23:41.76
77. Salvador Medrano, 23:41.87
79. Jacob Spence, 23:44.36
81. Denver Parker, 23:45.27
97. Connor Immenschuh, 24:13.32
107. Trail Spears, 24:25.97
Action heats up for Red Devil harriers
