Beaver Men solid at Tabor Invitational

Running with a full team for the first time all season, the Pratt Community College Men’s Cross Country team registered a solid showing that the 11 team Tabor Invitational on Sat., Sept. 24 at Harvey County East Lake Park just outside of Newton. The men, running just their second eight kilometer race of the season, finished ninth of eleven teams.

 
Coach Cyrus Hall was pleased with the performance of his men’s squad.
 
“We ran pretty well today for the first time,” Hall said. “I think it really helps to have those two extra guys in there to motivate the other guys. We stayed packed up well in the early stages of the race and it helped out a lot. We have some talent, now I just have to squeeze it out of them to prepare them for Region in late October.”
 
Leading the way for Pratt was sophomore Andrew Johnson. Johnson, who splits his time between soccer and cross country, was running for the first time this season, and came out firing on all cylinders. His time of 29:26 was good enough for 32 place out of 104 runners and only six seconds off of his personal best set last year. Following Johnson was Bernardo Miranda in 68, Blake Thompson 78, Chase Ward who was also seeing his first action of the season in 80, and Sage Boman in 88.
 
In the women’s race, the PCC group had a rough go at it. Sophomore Elena Botello led the way with a 15 place of 79 runners to finish with a t-shirt which is a medal in college races. However, her time wasn’t up to her usual standards. She was followed by Vicky Ibarra, Nikki Pyeatt in 42 and 54 places respectively. Next to cross the line was Cheyenne Martin, who was running for the first time since suffering an illness in week one in 65. And the final Beaver to cross the line was Bre Tallant in 78.
 
The women’s performance fell off a bit from the previous weeks, as the women finished 10th out of 10 full teams, but Coach Hall wasn’t too concerned.
 
“The girls were really down after the race,” Hall said. “And that’s a good thing, it shows that they are invested and they really care. But I told them that we just have to forget about it and move on. You have your good days and your bad days. Today was a bad day. The course was deceptively tough. And not as flat as our last couple of races, and we are a little fatigued. I’ve been training them pretty hard the last week and half, so they’ve got heavy legs right now.”
 
The Beavers will take this weekend off before travelling to Fort Hays State University on Saturday October 8 for the Tiger Open. The women’s 5k will start at 9 a.m. with the men’s 8k following after at 9:40 a.m. The race will be held at Gross Memorial Coliseum.

 
Women
Elena Botello               21:19    15th
Vicky Ibarra                 23:17    42nd
Nikki Pyeatt                  24:00    54th
Cheyenne Martin         25:30    65th
Bre Tallant                    29:20    78th
 
Men
Andrew Johnson         29:26    32nd
Bernardo Miranda       32:00    68th
Blake Thompson          32:53    78th
Chase Ward                32:58    80th
Sage Boman               34:05    88th