WAKEFIELD Some streaks ended and others continued for the Allen Community College cross country team when they competed in the Region VI/Jayhawk East Conference meet in Wakefield last Saturday.
The Red Devil men took the Jayhawk-East title, making it their seventh-straight win but finished third in the Region, thus breaking their streak of three-straight top finishes.
Meanwhile, the women finished second in both races behind host Cowley College.
The Red Devil women were led by All-Region and All-Conference runners Laina Kanuho (18:37.57) and Amber Gloria (18:56.62) who finished fourth and sixth in the region and third and fifth in the conference.
The rest of the Lady Devils struggled and held back a possible conference and regional win for ACC.
I was very happy with how Laina and Amber executed the race plan, said Head Coach Vince DeGrado. However, I was disappointed in the rest in how we didnt step up throughout the season and put ourselves in a better position heading into the meet.
However, DeGrado believes that if the women put in the work leading up to the national meet next weekend, they could still find themselves in a good spot nationally just like they did last year.
Last year we finished third in the region and then finished fifth at the national meet, DeGrado said. So anything can happen. I like where were going with the women but they need to lock down and realize what it takes to be a collegiate runner. It takes more than just running during practice every day. Youve got to live it and own it and thats something that weve struggled with so far.
The men were much stronger up top but didnt fare much better in their overall placing thanks to the tough competition in the top of the conference.
Four Red Devils earned All-Region and All-Conference honors led by Joshua Clethan (25:22.26) who placed sixth in the region and first overall in the conference.
Joshua Doria (25:54.38) and Yoel Yoel (25:56.71) finished 11th and 12th in the region and third and fourth in the conference.
Freshman Garrett Gantt (26:22.61) rounded out the top placers with a 15th-place region finish and a fifth-place finish in the conference.
That course exposed some things that I shouldve taken care of a long time ago, DeGrado said. You learn more from the losses than you do from the wins and we cant go in expecting to win every time because we have a new team. But even though we lost, we still placed three runners in All-Region. We didnt run badly, Id even call it above average. But the two teams that beat us were great and they took it to us.
The Red Devils lost their region streak to Hutchinson who took the top spot with Colby falling right behind.
Hats off to Hutch, DeGrado said. When the rules changed in the Jayhawk Conference on the number of international players you can have on a team, a lot of schools rushed out and filled their team with them. But the old rules limited you to just two and thats what Hutch stuck to and they won the Region. They played by the old rules and I can respect that.
