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OCT.
15 — Leafs Prep For Conference At Manchester
Squad
finishes seventh out of 10 teams; Petkova wins third straight
meet |
Manchester, IN — With the 2005
Mid-Central Conference Championships just a week away, the Goshen
College women’s cross country used the Manchester College
Invitational as its final collective tune-up Saturday, placing
seventh out of 10 teams while boasting the individual champion.
Junior All-American Petrana Petkova made it three consecutive meet
championships with her first-place, 18:22 finish, needing just
one more meet title to duplicate her four meet wins in a row last
season. To do that, Petkova would need to finish first at the league
championships, a feat she accomplished last year as a sophomore.
“Petrana ran another solid race, and as a team we are getting
into a more competitive mode of thinking,” said Doug Yoder,
Goshen head coach. “Manchester is a fast course, but the
effort of our women has really been coming out in the last few
weeks.”
Ironically, it was Petkova as the only Goshen runner not to improve
on times posted at last week’s Benedictine University Eagle
Invitational, as junior Laura Herr and senior Rachel Yanzti again
backed their All-American teammate with outstanding performances.
Herr and Yantzi ran nearly side by side throughout the meet, finishing
14th and 15th overall with times of 20:06 and 20:07, respectively.
“All of our times improved again, with the exception of Petrana,” Yoder
said. “Many of our athletes are starting to hit the goals
they had set at the beginning of the season and are now ready to
go to the next level beyond those goals.”
Sophomore Anna Mast was third in line for the team Saturday, finishing
48th overall in a time of 21:40. Freshman Tessa Horst made dramatic
improvements, finishing fifth in team standings with a 23:03 clip
(74th overall). Goshen most likely would have raised its team finish
in the meet had freshman Laura Harnish — whose season average
time places her at the Leafs’ third slot — been able
to compete. She missed the event due to a schedule conflict.
“We’ll put another hard week of training in and see
how things shake out at the conference meet,” Yoder said. “We’re
to the point where we want to run our absolute best race of the
season from top to bottom.”
Goshen finished with 132 team points in finishing seventh. Kalamazoo
College won the team event with a total 77 points. The Hornets
were followed by Huntington University with 94 points, Cornerstone
University with 105, Manchester with 109, Saint Mary’s College
with 111 and Franklin College with 130. Yoder’s squad surpassed
Marian College (157 points), the University of St. Francis (255
points) and Tri-State University (270) points.
The Mid-Central Conference Championships will be held at Huntington
on Saturday. Women’s race time is slated to begin at 11:30
a.m.
Goshen Individual Results
Petrana Petkova (1st) — 18:22
Laura Herr (14th) — 20:06
Rachel Yantzi (15th) — 20:07
Anna Mast (48th) — 21:40
Tessa Horst (74th) — 23:03
Rachel Wigginton (75th) — 23:11
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  Junior
Laura Herr and senior Rachel Yantzi
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