Injury and Inexperience at Roy Griak
ST. PAUL, Minn. (9/26/15)—An injury to Concordia's No.1 runner and the inexperience of the rest of the Cobbers squad hurt CC at the Roy Griak Invitational hosted by the University of Minnesota.
Concordia had Brandon Quibell drop out of the meet in the first mile and went on to place 11th at the annual event.
"Griak is the most physically demanding course we run all season," commented head coach Garrick Larson. "Lots of hills, softer footing, and high humidity on the heavily watered golf course. Today the course and distance handed our inexperienced guys a hard lesson. The guys will race better as they gain experience at 8000 meters."
The top five Cobbers at the Griak Invitational had only run a combined nine 8k races. Going up against teams with runners who had a combined nine 8k races as individuals cost the Cobbers. CC had their top finisher come home in 62nd place.
Disaster struck early as Quibell, the Cobbers' No.1 runner all season, had to drop out of the race a little more than one mile into the meet because of a lower body injury. Without Quibell, and junior Matthew Lillehaugen who was also out with an injury, the Cobbers' scoring potential was compromised.
The positive spin for the Cobbers was that other athletes stepped up and found new roles on the team. Race Heitkamp, who is new to cross country this year, led the Cobber runners finishing 62nd in a time of 30:14. Teammate Ryan Turner was close behind and finished 63rd in the scoring spots with a mark of 30:23. His finishing time was over two minutes faster than his mark at last year's Roy Griak meet.
"Ryan had a great race. All his mileage is really starting to pay off," said Larson.
Erik Larson (31:34), freshmen Luke Lillehaugen (31:06) and Brandan Johnson (32:05) rounded out the top 5 for the Cobbers.
"It's back to work on Monday," added Larson. "We've got another tough week of training trying to close the gap on the MIAC teams we will face in a month."
WHAT'S NEXT: The Cobbers will look to gain more experience when they compete in the Jimmie Invite on Friday, Oct. 9 at the Pipestem Dam in Jamestown.