Central Michigan University
Jeff Drenth Memorial
Chippewas Off to a Fast Start at Drenth Memorial
9/4/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Cross Country
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - Times and the formation of the pack are generally what is important to a cross country team in its season-opening competition.
On both fronts, it was all good for Central Michigan.
The Chippewa men swept the top six spots and the women took three of the top four Friday as CMU opened the season with the 30th Annual Jeff Drenth Memorial at Pleasant Hills Golf Course.
Michigan State and Alma also competed. No team scores were kept.
"Overall we executed the race plan pretty much perfectly," CMU associated head coach Matt Kaczor said. "The guys went through 2 seconds faster than what we asked for. Our pack is starting to round out.
"The ladies, we had them work on some things. We're looking for working on race strategies and on weaknesses at this point."
Central swept the top six spots in the men's race as Nate Ghena, Joseph Emmanuel and Silas Dekalita finished one, two and three, respectively, crossing the finish line simultaneously.
Those three are expected to be the Chippewas' front-runners throughout the season.
"I'm so excited for this year," said Ghena, a senior who finished in 15 minutes, 29.46 seconds. "Silas and I trained together this summer with Casey (Voisin) and a couple other guys who were up here and we've been talking to Joe all summer. He was right with us.
"I didn't know what to expect coming into this meet, we've had a hard three weeks of practice. I don't know if I could be happier right now."
CMU's Mark Beckmann placed fourth, Casey Voisin was fifth and Luke Anderson finished sixth.
In the women's race, CMU's Kirsten Olling was second, Kelly Schubert was third, and Megan O'Neill finished fourth. Erin McDonald of Michigan State was first in 17:23.92.
Olling, a transfer from Arizona State running for the first time in a CMU uniform, came in at 17:27.46. Schubert, a junior, redshirted last season; O'Neill is a transfer from Wisconsin.
Senior Breanne Lesnar, expected to join that trio in forming a solid foursome at the front of the CMU pack, did not run because of an injury but is expected to join the lineup soon.
"We have four solid girls up in that pack running insanely good times, and we have a lot coming up just after (us)," Olling said. "It's really cool that we're all together. It pushes you on the whole, makes us all better."
CMU's Hannah Davis and Alyssa Dyer placed eighth and ninth, respectively.
"Everyone's healthy right now, which is a huge thing," Ghena said. When everyone's healthy, we're training well. That's the part we've been missing the past couple years."
The Chippewas are scheduled to partake in the Michigan State Spartan Invitational on Sept. 18.
Players Mentioned
