Lohner runs her first race of season, Anderson leads team

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Holly Anderson finished 10th at the Spartan Invitational and led Central Michigan’s women’s cross-country team Friday.

Anderson, a senior, finished 21:11 to lead the Chippewas in their first 6K run of the season in East Lansing during the invitational.

It was also Raeanne Lohner’s first race since the Mid-American Conference championship last spring. She finished 16th, with a time of 21:26.

Lohner, a senior, said she was glad to race again.

“I was really excited to be back to race,” she said. “I’m just thankful to have a race to run in and a course to run on.”

The race was CMU’s second of the season. The first was the Jeff Drenth Memorial on Sept. 2. Coaches Willie Randolph and Matt Kaczor had decided to keep Lohner out of that race so she would be rested for the Spartan Invitational and the more meaningful races later in the season.

Lohner said the only real downfall to missing races is losing a sense of pace.

“You don’t know where the baseline is, so it’s a bit nerve-racking,” she said.

Randolph, the director of track and field and cross-country, said he thought the race went well.

“We’re not necessarily excited (about the results), but we’re moving in the right direction,” Randolph said. “You’re never satisfied. We’re looking at promising results and looking forward to the future.”

Randolph said the team has to continue working on running closer together at the front.

“They did that in pieces,” he said. “They did not do that 100 percent of the day.”

He wants to see the team do it when it counts toward the end of the year.

Lohner said she saw the team run well together.

“We definitely had some gaps, but compared to some years past, it didn’t seem as extensive,” Lohner said.

Despite the gaps, CMU’s seven runners placed in the top half of the race. Of the 231 runners in the Spartan Invitational, CMU senior Veronica Garcia finished in 73rd place. Finishing a minute later was junior Jacquelyn McEnhill, who finished 112th with a time of 23:37.

The next race for the women’s cross-country team is at 2 p.m. Sept. 30 for the Notre Dame Invitational.