O'Neil, CMU Men Win At Season-Opening Drenth

Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – Central Michigan's Megan O'Neil won the women's race and the Chippewas took four of the top five spots in the men's race as CMU opened the 2018 cross country season on Friday with the 33rd Annual Jeff Drenth Memorial at Pleasant Hills Golf Club.

O'Neil, a senior, finished in 17 minutes, 44.81 seconds. She crossed the finish line more than 14 seconds before Michigan State's Carlyn Arteaga, the runner-up.

CMU's Mark Beckmann was second in the men's race, followed by teammates Luke Anderson, Chandler Lorf and Riad Rababeh, who finished third, fourth and fifth, respectively.

The meet was the season opener and, as is always the case with cross country, it served as a low-pressure gauge for the Chippewas. Both races covered 5 kilometers. Generally in a college cross country race, the men run 8K, the women 6K.

The Chippewas won the men's team race with 25 points, 15 better than Michigan State. MSU, which is ranked 15^th, won the women's team event with 29 points. Hillsdale (42) was second while the Chippewas finished with 59.

"I'm OK with it," CMU women's coach Jenny Swieton said. "I'm not over-the-moon happy with where we're at. We definitely have some work to do, but I know we can move to where we want to be. I think the biggest thing for us is gaining the confidence that we need and we're not quite there yet."

TIGHT PACK
The finish for the Chippewa men was particularly satisfying, coach Matt Kaczor said, particularly in light of the fact that they did it without their top runner, sophomore Logan Kleam. Kleam is scheduled to make his season debut on Sept. 28 at Notre Dame.

Beckmann finished in 15:25.83. Hillsdale's Joseph Humes won in 15:13.44

Less than seven seconds separated Beckmann and Rababeh and a tight pack is ultimately what all cross country coaches seek.

"Once you add Logan into that – we know what Logan can do – it should be a pretty good group," CMU men's coach Matt Kaczor said. "That (spread) is huge for us."

Beckmann and Anderson are juniors, Lorf and Rababeh are freshman, and CMU's fifth runner, Conor Naughton, is a sophomore. Naughton, battling an injury, finished 17^th.

"That's a pretty good five," Kaczor said. "Conor, he's been dealing with some foot issues so we kind of changed his game plan for today to make sure we get through what we need to get through.

"We should have a pretty sound six here when we open everybody up in about a month at Notre Dame. "

SMART RACE
O'Neil put her patience on display and waited for her opportunity to seize the lead in the women's race.

"Megan is a competitor if there ever was one," Swieton said. "I knew in the first three-quarters of a mile of the race that she was going to have a good day. When she's feeling good she just sits on whoever's in the lead just waiting to take over. And she did that really, really well today.

"She did what she needed to do to win the race. She got her racing legs back. We didn't want to go too hard if we didn't have to and she did that."

Kirsten Olling was the Chippewas' second runner in the women's race. She placed 14^th. Also for CMU, Lauren Beckmann was 18^th, Morgan Merlino was 19^th and Natalie Beaulieu placed 26^th.

"Morgan Merlino, who's an 800-meter runner by trade, was our No. 4 and she had a huge PR because she put in a really tough summer of training and she just needs to believe in herself that she really is a cross country runner, which I don't know that she really believed in the past," Swieton said.

"We had some freshmen get their feet wet with their first college cross country race. I'm sure they're still a little freaked out, but we'll just keep moving forward. For the freshmen to get that experience is key. It's a lot different than high school. We've just got to kind of get them in the habit of knowing how to handle racing situations that come up in college."

NEXT
The Chippewas are scheduled to run in the Michigan State Invitational on Friday, Sept. 14.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Luke Anderson

Mark Beckmann

Logan Kleam

Chandler Lorf

Conor Naughton

Riad Rababeh