Lohner started the 2010 cross country season with a first place finish on the women's side at Friday's 25th annual Jeff Drenth Memorial at Pleasant Hills Golf Course in Mount Pleasant.

She said she was given a specific strategy on how to run the race, and finished in 18 minutes, three seconds.

“Coach wanted me to run fast enough to win but fast enough not to get to tired,” Lohner said.

Randolph, CMU's director of cross country/track and field, said he told Lohner to run a tempo-style, where is she is to sit in the middle of the race and then extend her energy toward the end of the meet.

“It’s promising to see," Randolph said. "She is very confident right now."

With both teams finishing three runners in the top 11, including Lohner's first place finish, Randolph said the meet went fairly well, does not want to look to far into the results this early in the season.

"A lot of individual things went well, so we’re excited," Randolph said. "But it is what counts at the end."

Both teams were missing runners in order to save them for bigger meets later in the season. The women’s team was without junior Holly Anderson, senior Sarah Squires and senior Melissa Darling, who won the meet last year.

The men’s side was without the presence of junior Wade Buchs and sophomore Tecumseh Adams.

Other top finishers for the women’s team were senior Danielle Dakroub (fifth, 18:40.2) and szenior Brittany Dixon (12th, 19:08.6). Sophomore Maddie Ribant finished 11th with a personal-best time of 19:03.1.

The highly-touted freshman Krista Parks ran unattached, finishing second with a time of 18:17.3.

Randolph said he was encouraged with what he saw from Krista.

"We have a bright future with her," he said.

Men's side

Even though the men’s team is relatively young, they finished with three runners in the top 11.

Its highest finish came from senior Cory Arnold, who placed seventh at 15:38.3. The other top-11 finishers included junior Jason Drudge (10th, 15:45.3) and senior Chris Pankow (11th, 15:49.9).

Randolph seemed pleased with the men finishing three runners in the top 11.

“It was more then what we expecting with such a young team," Randolph said. "We’re looking forward to build from there."

Junior Matt Lutzke and freshman Kyle Stacks ran unattached, finishing third (15:17.4) and fourth (15:19.4), respectively.

Buchs, who sat out with mononucleosis, said it was really encouraging to see the team's top-three runners start out faster than last year, but the meet served as a experience tool for the freshman.

“We looked good for the first mile, but then at the end we just separated,” Buchs said. “We let the gaps form early on, than things just feel apart. It wasn’t what we were looking for. It was more mental than physical.

“Once you get the first meet out of the way we can get into a routine and the younger guys know what to expect."

The CMU men's and women's cross country teams will take this weekend off before traveling to East Lansing on Sept. 17 to take part in the Spartan Invitational.