Cross country places 21st at Pre-NCAAs

By: Erika Hadley

Posted: 10/16/07

This weekend the Miami University men's cross country team competed at the NCAA Pre-Nationals and had what its runners described as a "breakthrough" race.

The large field of teams at the meet was divided into two separate races, with the Red and White placing 21st out of 38 teams in their race.

Junior Pat Sovacool figured that the team's overall standing at the meet was around 42nd place when all of the results were pooled together.

"Competition was really strong," Sovacool said. "Coach said we had 74 out of the top 77 teams in the country at that meet. Placing 42nd out of those 77 teams puts us in the top 50 in the country as a team, and that's pretty good."

Individually, Sovacool was the top finisher for Miami in 31st place. Senior Michael Veatch and junior Brad Untrauer finished in 110th and 115th, respectively.

Freshman Michael Perry finished in 133th place, and sophomore Kevin Silver came in 15th.

Sovacool, who has established himself as the front runner for the RedHawks this season, has received Mid-American Conference men's cross country Runner of the Week accolades twice, was also very pleased with his performance at Saturday's meet.

"Last year we went there and I ran over a minute slower and still ran my best race ever, so this was really a breakthrough race for me and I was pretty stoked about it," Sovacool said. "It wasn't easy-it hurt a lot, but it was totally worth it coming down to the finish line and seeing the clock and knowing how fast I was running. It was awesome."

Head Coach Warren Mandrell has enjoyed seeing his runners develop from the high school level to the collegiate level.

"Pat was leading this group of about three or four guys who were state champions in high school, and Pat's never even been to a state meet," Mandrell said. "That just shows his development, that he is running among these All-Americans now."

Veatch, who came in second for the 'Hawks, was excited about his individual time, but cited the highly competitive field as a source of some frustration.

"It was amazing but also kind of disheartening because the competition was so fierce there," Veatch said. "You run really, really well and then you look and realize how far back you still are. But at the same time you have to put it in perspective and realize if I was in a different race anywhere else in the country I'd be really far ahead. These were some of the best people in the country, and I was just happy that I ran my best race."

Perry, as a freshman on the team this year, has had a different experience from Veatch and Sovacool with this being his first year running 8K races instead of 5Ks.

"It's definitely weird coming through the 5K and knowing that I still have 3K to go, but this is the third 8K I've done, so I'm starting to get used to it," Perry said.

Mandrell has mentioned Perry's performance as being top-notch for a freshman on Miami's team.

"Perry's time of 24:51 was very fast," Mandrell said. "He's probably as fast a freshman as we've ever had, and that was just an absolutely great performance on his part."

During Saturday's race, Perry also fulfilled his own season-long personal goal of breaking 25 minutes.

"Coming into this season I wanted to break 25 and I did that, so I was really happy about that," Perry said. "I was 133rd, running faster than I did in high school for an extra two miles, so there's definitely a lot of work to do, but I was really happy with my race."

The team will next compete at the MAC Championships Oct. 27 at Central Michigan University.

"We'll be one of the team's that can go into the MAC Championships and honestly look at it and say we have a shot it," Mandrell said.

The results from this weekend's meet have raised the team's spirits and drive for a strong end-of-the-season finish.

"We though it was going to be a rebuilding year this year, and after yesterday we were just like, wow, we're ready to go," Veatch said. "It was good to go straight from Pre-Nationals into MACs, and we have all this momentum and everybody's really excited now, so it's going to be a good race."