Men’s Cross Country Exceeds Coach’s Expectations
Entering the Bethany Invitational Saturday, Sept. 10, head coach Chris Hardie wasn’t expecting a great finish in the 12 team field for the men’s cross country team.
After all, the Jackets were set to compete against nine Division II teams, and only two fellow Division III teams.
So when Waynesburg’s men placed fifth and beat the majority of those Division II squads, Hardie was pleased, considering his team also had six runners placing in the top 40 overall.
“It was better than I thought we were going to do,” said head coach Chris Hardie. “Out of nine Division II teams, we were able to beat seven of them, and that is something I didn’t think was possible.”
The top three finishers for the Yellow Jackets this past weekend include sophomore Joel Kuzminski, who placed 21st overall with a time of 29:55, senior Brendan Keany who finished 24th with a time of 30:03 and freshman Justin Lewis, who came in 26th with a time of 30:09.
For the Jackets’ leading runner, Kuzminski said he was pleased with his performance.
“I am very happy with my time,” said Kuzminski. “I knew it was going to be a tough race going in, and if you can power through that, you will come away with a good result, and I did.”
Saturday’s race put the team’s conditioning to the test, as temperatures reached into the mid-90s, according to Hardie. For some of the runners, it was the hottest race they have ever run, according to Kuzminski.
“It was one of the hottest races we have ever run in,” said Kuzminski. “It’s exciting to see our team perform so well in that kind of heat. It was a good team effort.”
As one of Waynesburg’s top runners this year, the men’s team will look to Kuzminski for leadership on and off the course, according to Hardie.
“In the last ten days, he’s gone up another notch in my mind,” said Hardie. “He’s the frontrunner on this team, both in his physical ability and in his leadership abilities.”
As the next event approaches, Hardie is looking to challenge his team and wishes to see some of his runners improve upon their previous times.
“This is probably the hardest training week we have this year” said Hardie. “We will have three days of hard training with one recovery day in there.”
The coaches want their runners to maintain – or even increase – their endurance and remain sharp in the midst of the long breaks between events that the team is presented with at times. “We have harder practices than we do races sometimes,” said Hardie. “It is important to us because we want to sharpen the sword.”
With a hard training week leading up to the race, as well as the continuing warm temperatures, it may be difficult for some of the runners to achieve personal best scores.
“Next week will be hot as well,” said Kuzminski. “We will have to hydrate the night before and hydrate a lot before the race.”
After a fifth place showing at the Bethany Invitational, the runners now shift their focus to their next race on Sept. 17, where the Waynesburg men travel to Latrobe, Pennsylvania, to compete in the Saint Vincent College Invitational. The Jackets are determined to improve on last year’s finish, in which they placed 11th out of 16 teams.
This race will not only provide an opportunity to see how the men stack up against many of their Presidents’ Athletic Conference competitors, but it also offers an early preview of the course used for the PAC Championships, to be held in October.