O'Neil, Anderson Lead CMU At Great Lakes Regional

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -- Megan O'Neil and Luke Anderson led the way for the Central Michigan cross country teams at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional race on Friday.

The Chippewa men finished in 13^th place out of 29 teams. Among the teams that CMU finished ahead of were Ohio State along with Mid-American Conference Eastern Michigan and Akron.

The Chippewa women's team finished in 16^th place out of 32 teams, placing ahead of the likes of Akron and Ohio.

No. 3 Wisconsin was the winner of the men's team title, while No. 7 Michigan won its third consecutive women's regional crown.

MEN
Anderson finished in 39^th place out of 204 runners in the 10K race with a personal-record time of 31:57. He was the second-fastest runner among those representing MAC schools in the event.

Following Anderson for CMU was Mark Beckmann who finished in 71^st place with a time of 32:30; Chandler Lorf came in 95^th with a time of 32:52; Logan Kleam finished right behind Lorf in 96^th place with a time of 32:53, and Zachary Sleeman was 113^th with a time of 33:10.

"This was kind of huge," CMU men's coach Matt Kaczor said. "We placed as the third-best MAC school, so we were able to beat Ohio and Akron. This is not an easy course and Anderson had his best ever 10K, so that was great. Then we had a pack that included Beckmann and about 20 places back you have Lorf and Kleam coming in there together and not too far from them was Sleeman and Riad Rababeh.

"We'll take it. We're in the top 15. But as a coach, you look at it and go, 'We were less than 10 points from finishing 11^th.' But this was a good step forward with this young crew."

WOMEN
O'Neil finished in 24^th place out of 225 runners with a time of 21:02 in the 6K race. She earned All-Region honors.

Following O'Neil for the Chippewas was Kirsten Olling, finishing 85^th with a time of 22:13; Morgan Merlino finished in 102nd with a time of 22:29; Lauren Beckmann was 126^th with a time of 22:51; and Natalie Beaulieu finished in 131^st place with a time of 22:56.

"I think the team raced well," CMU women's coach Jenny Swieton said. "You have different people that have great races on different days and we had a few people who had great races. Beckmann had a great race where she wasn't super happy with her race at (the MAC Championships), so it was good to see her come back.

"O'Neil ran leaps and bounds better than what she did at MACs. She just gave herself a chance and she hung on and got an All-Region spot.

"Every single student- athlete we had out there went out and gave everything they had today, and as coaches that's all we can ask for."

END OF THE SEASON
With both teams unable to finish in the top two, or earn a team or individual at-large bid, it marks the end of the season.

"We had our ups and downs," Kaczor said. "When you have your upperclassmen that came in and got hurt, it made us revamp the whole plan on how we were going to tackle the season because we were going to be dealing with a lot of youth.

"Drenth meet, we came out pretty good, Spartan Classic was OK because we had our first 8K, (Notre Dame) Joe Paine invitational felt like we were getting to where we wanted to be. Pre-Nationals and MACs did not go our way. But then we bounced back with the vengeance at this regional meet, which can hopefully lead for some exciting stuff with track season coming up and next year as well."

"I think we learned a lot," Swieton said. "Some of the lessons were kind of hard to learn so we have a lot of people in a lot of different places. With so many younger runners and so many seniors, it was about trying to get everyone on the same page when they're in such different points in their careers as an athlete.

"But we do have a pretty good pack and at the end of the day they all worked really hard to get better every day and run for one another."

SENIORS LAST RACE
For seniors O'Neil, Olling, and Samantha Allmacher, it was the last last cross country race of their colligate careers. The fourth Chippewa senior, Erin Zdrojewski, served as an alternate at the regional.

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Players Mentioned

Luke Anderson

Mark Beckmann

Logan Kleam

Chandler Lorf

Riad Rababeh