Warriors Run at Nationals

Spartanburg, S.C. -- The Indian Hills men’s cross country team ended their season at the NJCAA National Meet in Spartanburg, S.C. last weekend. The Warriors finished in 34th place and had one runner finish with a personal-best time.

Henry Majin, a freshman from Ottumwa, cut over a minute off his previous best time and finished 5th among the IHCC runners in 31:43.

Indian Hills was led, as they were all season long, by sophomore Jon Gerling (Winfield). He ran 27:23, 30 seconds faster than his time at nationals last year, and wound up in 100th place. Gerling was 14th among the 42 runners from Iowa schools at the meet.

Freshman Glen Morgan (Winfield) finished the 8K course in 29:11, only four seconds off his personal best. Danny Schieffer (Columbus Junction) moved up to third on the Warriors with a time of 29:48, just ahead of teammate Steele Fiscus (Union), who ran 29:50.

Freshman Marcus Clark (Fairfield) rounded out the IHCC participants with a time of 32:25.

Coach Jim Streeby had hoped going into the race that, based on 2009 National Meet results, his squad would place in the middle of the team competition, maybe get a few PR’s and have five runners under 30:00.

“Physically, we were ready to run well,” said Streeby, “and I’m not sure why, but we seemed to lose our mental focus. So I think you have to use it as a learning process. However, even if every one of our runners had hit their PR, we would have only moved up to 32nd place in the team race.”

Streeby stressed there were some positives in the 2010 season. “The men’s team ended up as the fastest ever at Indian Hills with a 29:22 average for the top five runners. Jon Gerling lowered his own school record three times, down to 26:53. That’s a minute faster than Jon ran last year which is a very good improvement in a year.”

Gerling and Fiscus were the two sophs on this year’s team and Streeby mentioned what a pleasure it was to work with them the past two seasons.

Warriors 6th at Regional Meet

Council Bluffs, IA -- The Indian Hills men's cross country team finished in 6th place at the Region 11 Cross Country Championships on Friday. The Warriors had seven runners compete and were only three points out of 5th place in their final tuneup before the national meet in South Carolina.

Three of the top 25 ranked teams in the country were in the field and the Warriors were edged for 5th place by Marshalltown CC.

Jon Gerling led IHCC with a 13th-place finish in 27:50 over the 8K course. Glen Morgan ran 29:59 for 31st place. Morgan was followed by Steele Fiscus, who was 32nd in an even 30:00.

Danny Schieffer ran 30:16 for 34th place.

Coach Jim Streeby said a key for Indian Hills will be how the Warriors' 5th runner fares. On Friday, Jordan Bradfield was 5th for IHCC in a time of 33:07; Henry Majin ran 33:09 and Marcus Clark finished in 33:40. Streeby wants one of those three to get close to the 30-31 minute range at the national meet.

Indian Hills will take the next two weeks to prepare for the Nov. 13 NJCAA National Cross Country Championships in Spartanburg, South Carolina.