Women's cross seeking team effort Saturday
Contrary to the men, the women’s cross country team has a group of runners coming off performances that earned praise from the coaching staff.
Director and coach Willie Randolph said the girls are looking to improve upon that performance Saturday at the Greater Louisville Classic in Louisville, Ky.
“They’ve been running really smart together,” Randolph said. “The girls are taking leaps and bounds in regards to where they were at previously in terms of training.”
Led by juniors Melissa Darling and Danielle Dakroub and sophomore Holly Anderson, CMU placed four runners in the top 40 at the Spartan Invitational on Sept. 18.
“They’re understanding what their jobs are, and are starting to bring the other ladies underneath them there where they need to be at,” Randolph said.
The team is looking to find a few more consistent runners to complete the team effort, said assistant coach Matt Kaczor.
“Now it’s just trying to make sure that not just five run well this week, it’s all seven of them,” Kaczor said.
Dakroub set a new personal record at the Spartan Invitational, finishing 16th overall with a time of 22 minutes, 21 seconds.
“I just want to have a decent race and run one of my fastest races – feel strong,” she said.
Other teams expected to compete on Saturday include host Louisville, top junior college Rend Lake, Eastern Kentucky, Western Kentucky, Middle Tennessee State and Virginia, among others.
“Looking at some of the teams, I think for us, as a team, a good thing would be top five,” Darling said. “Looking for a lot of us (individually), it’s PR (personal record). It’s a little bit of a faster course; I think three of us can definitely get under 18:00 and have all top seven under 18:30.”
The Mid-American Conference Championships will take place Oct. 31 at Akron.
The team will compete in the Michigan Intercollediates on Oct. 9 and Pre-Nationals on Oct. 17 before championship meet.
