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Jacob Hayes (610) tries to break away from the pack. Hayes finished third for Mesa with a time of 30 minutes, 10 seconds. He finished 42nd in the 8,000 meters in San Diego’s Aztec Invitational. |
Ben Buettner
Mesa Legend
Mesa’s cross country men improved at their second meet, the Aztec Invitational in San Diego, Sept. 18. Instead of taking last place, they took 7th (out of 10) overall as a team. A big reason for the slow start this season is the age of the players. Of the seven current runners, six are freshmen for the men. Jacob Hayes, Seth Lagrhausen and Mark Yost were the top finishers and they are first year performers. Another freshman, Lorenzo Kewanyama, thought that as a team, they did a whole lot better than the last meet saying “anxiety” had a lot to do with their sub-par performance, Sept. 4. Seeing that a senior in high school has to jump from 5,000 meters to 8,000 meters as a freshmen in college, one might be able to understand the anxiety that they may have had.
Coach Clyde Resendez, said that the men did “really well” and believes that “they are embracing the extra distance and running with it.”
Mesa’s top performer was Seth Lagrhausen, who ran the 8,000 meters in 28:31, finishing 17th. Mesa does have the half marathon to look forward to later in the year when Calvin Fife will be running for MCC at that point, who finished second at the Aztec Invitational (27:03) but ran individually and not for any school.
The coaching looked a little thin this weekend because Michelle Resendez, Clyde’s wife and assistant coach, was running in the women’s Aztec cross country invitational. She took first place with a time of 19:21 in the 5,000 meters running on behalf of Quest Club. Katie Forkner finished 24th with a time of 20:45 and first for the Mesa women, while star runner Chloe Young’bloom is on disaster relief in Florida following an internship for a firefighting career.
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