CLARION
Brevard College .Brevard N,C.
Vol. 57 Number 4
Monday, November 13,1989•
BC men win 3rd,women 7th in XC nationals
by Jock Lauterer
BC \eu‘5 Bureau
Brevard College’s men’s cross
country team placed third and the
women seventh at the National
Junior College Athletic Association
Cross Country Championships
Saturday.
Last year, both BC teams placed
fourth, so Coach Dave Rinker called
ths year’s results a split decision:
the men did better, and women
didn’t. But then, the women are all
freshman, he pointed out.
As a whole, the BC cross country
program won runner-up honors at
this weekend’s nationals.
Running at Johnson County Com
munity College in Overland Park,
Kansas, the Tornadoes of Coach
Dave Rinker amassed a combined
score that was second only to Cen
tral Oregon, who placed their men’s
and women’s teams one-two, jsut as
BC had done in 1987, the last time
Brevard’s men won the nationals.
Coach Rinker observed, “The men
did a really nice job; it was the best
we could have done,” he said, ex
plaining that Central Arizona and
Central Oregon were so tough that
had they raced the BC team that won
the national championship two years
ago “we would have gotten killed.”
Men’s Race
The top five finishers in the men’s
five mile race were Central Oregon,
38; Central Arizona, 62; BC, 111;
Blinn (of Texas), 129; and South
Plains (Tex.), 202.
Low score wins in cross country.
210 runners from 25 schools coast to
coast competed.
The top five individual scorers
were: Micah Boinett of Blinn, 24:19;
Willy Songok of Blinn, 24:35;
Mbarak Hussein of South Plains,
24:46; John Doherty of Central
Arizona, 24.49; and Ken Antles of
Central Oregon, 24:54.
Brevard’s men were led by three
All-American finishers: Jeff Camp
bell, Bill Mantooth and Craig
(joodroe.
Campbell, a Marriotville, Md.,
freshman, placed 10th overall with a
25:16. He was followed by Bill Man
tooth, a transfer student from the
University of South Florida, in 19th
with a 25:36. Third for BC was Craig
Goodroe, a Jacksonville, Fla.,
freshman, in 24th with 25:42.
Then came Chris Dunn (red-
shirted in ’87) of Fredericksburg,
Va. in 28th with 25:52; Chris Griggs,
a Greensboro, N.C., sophomore, in
34th with 26:02; Brad Smith (red-
shirted last year) of Lake Mary,
Fla., in 63rd with 26:46; and Tiatso
Pitkonen, a Clewiston, Fla.,
sophomore, in 83rd with 27:12.
Talking about the race, BC’s top
Pictured in front of the BC van just before leaving for the XC Nationals in Kansas last week, the Brevard Col
lege men’s and women’s cross country teams include: front row, left to right, Tina Wiegerink, Jennifer
Mallett, Heather Weldon, Hope Pickett, Holly Higgins. Allyson Cottrell; back row: John Massie, Chris Griggs,
Taisto Pitkonen, Chris Dunn, Brad Smith, Jeff Campbell. Craig Goodroe. Bill Mantooth. and Coach Dave
Rinker.
man, Jeff Campbell, described how
they all went out together, but that
Pitkonen stumbled and fell in the
start and had to start his race almost
dead last. (Afterward, Pitkonen,
who was injured, was to say of the
fall, “It was terrible, that’s all I
could say.”) Campbell went on to
run most of his race trailing Bill
Mantooth closely as they both mov
ed up gradually.
“At about the three-mile point, we
began surging,” Campbell said. “At
three and half miles 1 caught Bill
and told him I was going ahead.
From then on, we both held on, try
ing to pick people off. I guess I fuss
ed 10 to 15 — and at the end I didn’t
even know I’d finished 10th because
me and another guy fell right at the
finish and couldn’t get back up and
had to be carried away,” Jeff, who
had a PR, added, “it was a tough
course, a lot of long grades... there
was one bad hill at the finish.
Coach Dave Rinker observed that
the to two men’s teams — Central
Oregon and Central Arizona, who
finished one-two in reverse order
last year, returned all but one of
their runners, and that they were
ranked to win the nationals. BC
could have beaten them only if those
teams had had bad days and BC had
had a great day, he explained.
Rinker went on to call it the
toughest field of junior college run
ners in terms of talent he’d seen in
ten years, and that he was pleased
overall with the Brevard perfor
mances.
Women’s Race
The Brevard College women’s
team, made up entirely of freshmen,
all boasted Personal Records at the
Nationals.
Ricks (of Idaho), a perennial
women’s XC powerhouse, won the
team championship with a low score
of 67, followed by Central Oregon,
84; Barton County (Kansas), 122;
Northeastern Oklahoma, 158;
Southwestern Michigan, 182; and
BC, 191.
The individual champion was
Sylvia Sanchez of Florida Junior
College with a winning time of 17:12.
Last year’s individual national
champion was Brevard College’s
Alice Gaines, now a runner for
Virginia Tech. Gaines paced the
Lady Tornadoes last year to a fourth
place finish.
This year, the BC women finished
in the following order: Heather
Weldon of Marietta, Ga , in 30th with
18:56; Holly Higgins of Gainsville,
Fla., in 39th with 19:11; Hope Pickett
of Dale City, Va., in 45th with 19:26;
Allyson Cottrell of Charleston, S.C.,
in 57th with 19:44; Tina Wiegerink of
Chapel Hill, N.C. in 77th with 20:13;
and Jennifer Mallett of Ft. Myers,
Fla., in 95th with 20:39
Fifteen teams competed, with 136
women runners finishing the 5K
course. Again this year, Brevard
College President Billy Greer hired
a place to tow a banner over the
cross country course reading:
“Good Luck Brevard College Tor
nadoes — Go! Go!”
Coach Rinker observed, “the front
girls ran fair and the back girls ran
well. And we had the closest gaps
ever for the women.”
And how does all this bode for next
year?
Upon returning Sunday night.
Coach Rinker said, “Six of our top
eight men could return next year,
shoot, yeah! It could look good.”
Another stat worth noting: In the
’80s, BC had the only men’s team in
the nation to finish in the top five
every year.
The Brevard College running pro
gram has won national honors
regularly, the men winning the na
tional championship five times in
the ’80s.
Coach Dave Rinker, in his third
year as men’s and women's cross
country coach, hopes to host next
year’s NJCAA Cross Country Cham
pionships at Brevard College. That
decision is “almost definite.” accor
ding to kx)lh Rinker and President
Greer.