November 16, 2009

Cowley men place fifth at national championships

Landing three runners on the list of Coaches Association All-Americans, the Cowley College men’s cross country team capped another stellar season by placing fifth out of 31 teams at the NJCAA Division I National Championships held Saturday in Peoria, IL.

Although the team finished in the top-five at the national meet for the fourth straight season, Cowley head coach Vince DeGrado did not feel his runners had their best race.

“At the national meet you want everybody to have a good or great race, but we had an average race,” DeGrado said. “I guess we are happy we can run an average race and still be a top-five team.”

Sophomore Dustin Mettler, the conference champion in the Jayhawk East, led Cowley by placing 25th with a time of 26:25.

“I felt Dustin could have run better, but he still fought in the race and did not give up,” DeGrado said.

Joining Mettler as Coaches Association All-Americans were, sophomores Brice Irving (26:29) and Phillip Banowetz (26:39), who placed 26th and 33rd, respectively.

“Phillip has come a long way as a runner, and Brice worked hard to come back from the injury he suffered last year,” DeGrado said.

Coaches Association All-American honors are bestowed to the top-25 American born runners. This season, Cowley did not have an international runner on its roster.

“We proved we don’t need international runners in order to be successful,” DeGrado said. “We showed you can train American runners and still be in the top-five.”

DeGrado was probably most pleased by the performance of freshman Tyson Christensen from Roy, Utah. Christensen competed well and finished 39th with a time of 26:56. Fellow freshman, Josh Gracia (27:01), finished just five seconds behind Christensen in 43rd place.

“Josh and Tyson will both be a lot better next year,” DeGrado said.

Sophomores Cianin Kutil (27:38) and Isbek Salinas (28:13) placed 75th and 109th, respectively, out of 259 runners. While, Rend Lake College’s Stephen Sambu was the individual national champion with a time of 24:00.

Sambu’s performance helped Rend Lake (IL) win the national championship by two points over runner-up Paradise Valley (AZ) Community College. Jayhawk West school, Garden City, placed third. South Plains Community College finished fourth.

Cowley will lose Mettler, Kutil, Banowetz, Salinas, and Irving to graduation. The sophomores helped Cowley capture its fourth straight conference title and add another top-five national finish to the school’s list of accomplishments.

“I will be sad to see them all go,” DeGrado said.

Irving, Banowetz, Christensen, Kutil, and Salinas will have one more race in the fall as they will compete at the NJCAA Half Marathon Classic held Saturday, Nov. 22 in Overland Park.

Top-10 team scores:
(1) Rend Lake, 66; (2) Paradise Valley, 68; (3) Garden City, 101; (4) South Plains, 136; (5) Cowley, 166; (6) Butler, 229; (7) Iowa Western, 248; (8) Iowa Central, 250; (9) Johnson County, 277; (10) Lansing, 308.