CMU finishes third, Lyons shatters personal best at Notre Dame


Weather issues didn’t stop three Central Michigan women's cross-country runners from achieving personal best times on Friday.

Junior runner Charnele Lyons shattered her personal best time in the 5k race with a time of 18:07, about 50 seconds faster than her previous best. Lyons finished in eleventh place.

“When I stepped at the line, I knew I was going to shatter my personal record,” Lyons said.

The weather, as CMU cross-country assistant coach Matt Kaczor said, was “almost everything rolled up into one.” The temperature was in the low 50s and 40 mile-per-hour winds were recorded on the cross-country course.

“I had a jacket on before the race because it was windy,” Kaczor said. “I took it off during the race because the sun came out, then it started raining so I had to put it back on. The wind was brutal. If you weren’t patient with your moves, you were blown around.”

Lyons was patient and she said she let the other runners do the work in the high wind.

“I just kept thinking,  ‘I don’t want to get detached.’ I tried to stay behind others, out of the wind,” Lyons said. “That made it a lot different race for me.”

Kaczor said Lyons ran the best race for CMU.

“Our top four ran well for us,” Kaczor said. “Charnele had the best race for us — Charnele ate people alive in the last thousand (meters)."

Senior runner Raeanne Lohner also set a new personal best with a time of 17:50 and finished third. Senior Holly Anderson finished soon after with a personal best of 18:04. Seconds later, freshman Breanne Lesnar finished 18:06 in her first attached race. Lyons finished a second after.

Lyons said she liked what she saw from the team.

“Friday was probably the best race so far this season,” Lyons said.

Kaczor said he is looking for someone else to step up for the coming championship races.

“We need a fifth runner to step up for us in the next couple weeks so we can really make a push in the championship segment,” he said.

The Chippewas race on Friday at the Michigan Intercollegiate Championships in Hillsdale.

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