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Submitted by Head Coach Bob Smalley

OSWEGO STATE Invitational

September 8th, 2007

The Houghton College Highlander cross country team kicked off its season at SUNY Oswego. This was the inaugural race for this course, as well as for our vegas- gold and black uniforms. The warm 80 degree temperature was pleasantly tempered by a lake breeze, with no threat of rain. At 12:00pm the gun signaled the start of the Pat Peterson women's 5k. Houghton had twelve women start the race. Among the twelve complete collegiate teams competing were perennial power house teams- SUNY Geneseo, and Ithaca College. After the first mile our top two women - Katie Fadden (So., FDR High School) and Rachel Rhodes (Sr., Cattaraugus-Little Valley HS) were running comfortably together in the top 20, with the rest of our team sitting in the middle of pack. At the end of the race it was Salamanca native - Rachel Rhodes finishing in 9th pave over-all and first for Houghton. Katie Fadden, ran courageously on a badly blistered foot, placed 11th (19:48),out of 133 runners.. (Sr., Brockport HS) Captain- Irene Vickner (21:17); (Sr., North Park Collegiate) Heather Hutton (21:27) and (Fr., Mexico, HS) Ashlie Wilson ( 21:40) brought in the next pack. As a team, our women placed a very respectable 3rd, out of 12 teams. Top recruit - (FR.)Heather Sayre , from Wellsboro HS) struggled with the heat, and finished the race in a disappointing team position of 7th.

The Don Masterson Men's 8k followed, at 1:00pm -(156 runners/ 13 teams). Again, our Highlander harriers were up against some excellent competition, in the Nationally ranked Blue Knights of Geneseo ,and the Ithaca Bombers. At mile two our men looked under control, and in good position to score well. The finish was electric as (Jr., Faith Heritage HS)Captain- Dan Ballard (26:13) put on a last mile surge to pass 12 of the front runners. He almost caught the Champion, Jesse Burube, from SUNY G.. (Jr, Arkport HS) Chad Stauring came in a very respectable 11 place (27:09). Our top five were rounded out by (Sr, Wayne valley HS) Mike Platt (28:29), (So., Ridley HS) Landry Jarvis ( 28:38), and (Sr., Chittenango HS) Joe Campagna ( 28:48). Also, of particular note were the performances of (Fr.) Gregg (Jesse) McConnell ( 29:25), (Fr.Caribou HS) Stefan Ciszewski -,and (Fr, Schenectady Christian) Tyler Welsh ( 30:30).

Houghton Coaches Bob Smalley, Matt Dougherty, and Mary Gibson had high expectations for this meet. There were many unanswered questions. At meet's end we can sum up by stating the following: These two teams have worked hard. They have a lot of potential and character. We did well, but did not come close to our potential. We will be competitive in the weeks to come.

We invite one and all to attend our next meet. We will be hosting the Houghton Highlander Invitational, on Saturday,September 22nd, at the Field of Dreams course . Women will run at 10:30am, Men will run at 11;15am. This meet will feature the largest field of collegiate teams ever hosted, to date, at Houghton College. Houghton College will also host , be a high school invitational after collegiate meet.

SUNY Geneseo Blue Knight Invitational

September 29th, 2007

The one hour delay for this weekend's races ,at beautiful Letchworth Park may have had some effect upon our harriers today. By the time 12:00pm rolled around the once cool day had turned into a beautiful, but sunny, high 70 degree day. Our men stepped to the line with 15 other complete teams(217 runners). Early on it was evident that the terms "pack running" and "calculated risk" were at the forefront of our athletes' minds. By the 4 mile mark we had established one front runner and a solid pack of four, not too far behind. As has been the case in this season's previous two outings, Dan Ballard (25:48.7) waited until mile four to start to catch the competition. He wowed the crowd (he was in 18th place as he passed coach Smalley- with less than 1 mile to go), and to everyone's amazement he finished .4 seconds out of first place! Our men had a solid day placing 4th over-all with Chad Stauring (27:05); Landry Jarvis (27:06); Mike Platt (27:15) and Jake Connor(27:21). Eleven Highlanders recorded PRs.

The Lady Highlanders started their race at 1:00pm. This was a 6k, not the 5k, which we are accustomed to running. The extra 1000m did not seem to hamper us as top runners Rachel Rhodes (23:11) and Kaitie Fadden (23:30) placed 12th and 15th, respectively. Our women competed without top recruit (Fr) Heather Sayre; and #3 Heather Hutton. Both were out of the competition, but are expected to compete at the Roberts Wesleyan Invitational, on October the 13th.

There were twelve complete teams, with Houghton gaining the 5th spot in team scores.

Harry F. Anderson Invitational

October 13th, 2007

After all was said and done the Houghton College Highlanders walked away from the Harry F. Anderson Invitational having set 17 pr's; taking 1st( out of 15 teams) in the Women's 5k race; 3rd in the men's 8K (out of 14 teams); and topping it off with Jr. Captain , Dan Ballard finishing first in the men's race. This was the first course that the Highlanders have run with any kind of a hill... they seemed to like it.

In the women's race top runners Katie Fadden (3rd-19:02) and Rachel Rhodes(5th-19:09) set the pace early. This was a great team effort, since it was the first race back for Heather Hutton (20:15) and Heather Sayre (20:54) who had both be absent from the last two races. Another significant point was that our women ran without injured Sr. Captain- Irene Vickner.

The men's race started out with our top 7 leading the pack at mile one. After correcting a mix-up (leaders were sent the wrong way), our men pulled themselves together to finish with a 1:44 time difference between #1 and our #5 runners. Dan Ballard wowed there crowd, once again, by hunting down the front runner in the last mile. Houghton had great races from Sr. Joe Campagna (27:42) and Fr. Jesse McConnell (27:46) who placed in the top five for the first time.