Darling wins first cross country meet of season


Junior Melissa Darling took the spotlight Friday afternoon, winning the 24th annual Jeff Drenth Memorial with a time of 18 minutes 49 seconds.

“We were excited to get out here and race on our home course,” said Darling. “This kind of race gives us a chance to gauge our fitness level and just really look and see where we are at this point.”

At the one mile mark it was a large pack of Central Michigan and Michigan State runners fighting for position but with just 1,000 meters Darling was pulled away from the pack, winning by a comfortable distance.

“I thought the women did really well and we just wanted to get a race under our belt,” said assistant coach Matt Kaczor. “The ladies have been showing some competitive fire and I got to see what is going on with this meet.”

Some other notable finishes for the Chippewas were sophomore Holly Anderson taking fourth place, and juniors Danielle Dakroub and Kylee Kubacki finishing fifth and sixth, respectively.

The Men

On the men’s side it was junior Chris Pankow and sophomore Jeremy Kiley turning in solid performances. Kiley finished in sixth place with a time of 16:11, right behind him was Pankow taking seventh with a time a 16:14.

Winning the meet for the men was Michigan State’s Alex Russeau (15:34), unattached runners finished second through fifth respectively.

“Right now with this meet we get to have an eye on the upperclassmen and we had a lot of goof things happen today,” said head coach and director Willie Randolph. “The goal is to win and compete and it is a daily challenge.”

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