Kansas Ventures to the Little Apple for Invitational
Sept. 7, 2006
LAWRENCE, Kan. –
Click here for notes on the meet in PDF format.
Fresh off its season-opening sweep at the Bob Timmons Invitational, the University of Kansas cross country teams head to Manhattan, Kan., Friday to compete in the Kansas State Wildcat Invitational. The meet, which will be hosted at Warner Park, is scheduled to start at 6:45 p.m. with the women’s 5k race, followed by the men’s 5k at 7:15 p.m.
At last year’s meet between the Sunflower State rivals, the mens’ teams tied, while the Kansas women defeated the Wildcats. Junior Colby Wissel won his second consecutive meet, finishing the 5k race in a time of 15:12.8. Senior Laura Major is the top returning finisher on the female squad, finishing the 5k in 19:49.6, good four fourth place.
“It should be a good race because Kansas State has a lot of good runners this year,” junior Hayley Harbert said. “We’ve run the course before, so we know it pretty well. It is really flat compared to Rim Rock.”
Last week was quite a success for both teams. Junior Paul Hefferon, a 2005 All-Big 12 selection, captured the first victory of his career at the Bob Timmons Invitational. The Overland Park, Kan., native completed the challenging 8k run at Rim Rock Farm in a time of 25:38.95. Following closely on his heels was another 2005 All-Big 12 selection, Colby Wissel. The Elm Creek, Neb. native trailed Hefferon by just 24 hundredths of a second, finishing in 25:39.19.
Rounding out the top-10 finishers for the Jayhawks were senior Erik Sloan (fifth, 26:16.99), junior Patrick McGowan (ninth, 26:39.26) and senior Tyler Kelly (10th, 26:41.61). The Jayhawk men won the meet, scoring 26 points, defeating the next closest team, the University of Missouri-Rolla, by over 40 points.
On the women’s side, a sixth-place finish by junior Melissa O’Rourke paced the Jayhawk women for their second consecutive victory at the Bob Timmons Invitational. Her time of 24:14.51 in the 6k run represented a career best for the Tulsa, Okla., product. She was closely followed by senior Laura Major (12th, 23:23.95) and juniors Lisa Morrisey (23:37.26), Alicia McGregor (17th, 23:54.48) and Harbert (19th, 24:32.07).
The Jayhawk women also had impressive finishes by its freshmen, who competed in the meet unattached. Leading the way was Lauren Bonds, who placed seventh in a time of 23:15.04, and Cassi Sokol, who finished 11th in a time of 23:20.72. The Kansas women won the event with a score of 59 points, defeating second-place Grinnell College by 14.
Click here to read an interview with junior Hayley Harbert.
Click here to rean an interview with junior Patrick McGowan.
Stay tuned to kuathletics.com for the results from the K-State Wildcat Invitational.
