Injured Mabil to lead men's cross country
The day the CMU cross country program has been building to all season arrives this weekend.
The men’s team will travel Saturday to Athens, Ohio, for the 2009 Mid-American Conference Cross Country Championships, seeking its first conference title since 2004.
“Anytime you go into a conference championship, you go in saying that you want to win and be the best,” said director Willie Randolph. “Anything can happen on a conference day.”
CMU returns five runners that competed in the 2008 MAC Championships, held in Ypsilanti, Mich., where the team finished fourth overall.
Despite a worsening right Achilles, senior Riak Mabil, who finished 12th (25 minutes, one second) last year, will lead the team this weekend. He is seeking his first conference title, with a possibility of Saturday being the last meet of his five-year college career.
“I won’t have any other shot at it,” Mabil said. “It’s all or nothing.”
Pressure is on Mabil and the team to win a title, but there also is a level of pressure on the underclassmen to not let down seniors Mabil and Jacob Korir, Randolph said.
“This is Riak’s last hurrah and his opportunity to leave this program with a ring,” said assistant coach Matt Kaczor.
Behind Mabil is junior Sammy Kiprotich, who led the team and finished seventh (24:49) at the 2008 MAC Championships. Kiprotich finished in the top 50 at the Greater Louisville Classic on Oct. 3.
Junior Chris Pankow and sophomores Jeremy Kiley and Matt Lutzke will compete in the conference championships for a second consecutive year. Pankow placed 19th (25:12) last year as a sophomore in Ypsilanti.
Rounding out the Chippewas’ lineup is true freshman Tecumseh Adams, junior Adam Smith and sophomore Travis Gere, who ran in the open 8K race two weeks ago in Terre Haute, Ind.
“Our goal is to come back with a championship,” Mabil said. “We’re ready; we’ve been working too hard ... there’s no way we can’t be ready.”
The team maintained its No. 13 United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association ranking in the Great Lakes region following the Pre-Nationals event on Oct. 1.
