Cross Country Underway With Annual Drenth Memorial

Friday, August 30

Mount Pleasant, Mich.

10 a.m.

Central Michigan University

Jeff Drenth Memorial

Photo by: Allissa Rusco

8/30/2019 2:45:00 PM | Men's Cross Country, MTF, Women's Cross Country, Track & Field

Photo Gallery

Freshmen stand out in season-opening event

By: Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – Emily Shelton and Maddy Boyd joined Mark Beckmann and Adam Rzentkowski in leading the Central Michigan cross country team on Friday during the Chippewas' annual Jeff Drenth Memorial 5K at Pleasant Hills Golf Club.

Shelton, Boyd and Rzentkowski are freshman, while Beckmann is a senior.

"The biggest thing for us is to see how the freshmen are going to respond to a race situation that's a little different than what they had in high school," CMU coach Jennifer Swieton said "Everybody, from all the teams, are probably pretty tired right now, but to see how they're handling the training and the fatigue, it's like rip the Band-Aid off, get the first meet out of the way, and then we can move forward and know where to go from here."

Shelton placed fourth in 18 minutes, 4.54 seconds in the women's race, while Boyd was fifth in 18:05.18. Also for the Chippewa women, Natalie Beaulieu placed 12^th (18:42.15), Lauren Beckmann was 13^th (18:57.02), and Carissa Gobbi was 15^th (19:07.07).

Makayla Perez of Michigan State won the women's race in 17:34.73. Josh Smith of MSU won the men's race in 15:08.54, while Beckmann was third (15:19.42) and Rzentkowski was fourth (15:20.20).

"We had some really great performance by our freshmen, which is super awesome," Swieton said. "A lot of PRs, and to come in as a freshman in your first college race and run a PR is very hard to do because of expectations and pressure.

"The upperclassmen kind of know the ropes and how the season progresses and how the big stuff happens in October. For the freshmen, I think when you're in high school it's a little bit different approach to the season. So I think they're nervous, if we're being honest, but they handled it very, very well today and I know nobody is maxed out already. There's room to grow for all of them."

CMU freshmen Jakob Sayers (15:29.30) and Zachary Sleeman (15:33.38) finished 10^th and 11^th, respectively, in the men's race, while junior Riad Rababeh was 12^th in 15:34.72.

"Our returners came and took care of business too," Swieton said. "I think they did what they needed to in the summer in order to be prepared for the season, and I think that they're more confident than they've been in the past, and that's super important. We definitely, on the men's and women's side, have progress that needs to be made. I think we're at a very good starting point particularly for how young our teams are."