 "Photo: Loyola Athletic Department/Steve Woltmann")
When facing some of the top talent in the country, neither cross-country team balked at the competition. On Saturday, Nov. 14, the men and women traveled to Springfield, Mo., to compete in the NCAA Midwest Regional Meet, hosted by Missouri State.
The women finished only 18th out of 22 teams at the race, but had a few highly placed runners. Senior Jessie Morgenthal was Loyola’s top runner, finishing 66th in the 173-runner field. Next highest was sophomore Jen Rock, who finished 36 seconds behind Morgenthal in 91st place. Senior Pam Staton came in 20 spots behind Rock with a finishing time of 23:38.
The men performed a little better: 14th out of 25 teams with 400 points. Sophomore standout Josh Stein was the first in maroon and gold to cross the finish line, taking 52nd out of 174, while junior Ben Reifenberg took 56th.
Both Stein and Reifenberg cited the loss of top senior runner Ryan Kuphall a few weeks ago to a stress fracture as a major blow to their season.
“We got off to a great start and then ran great at our home invitational, and then our senior leader [Kuphall] was sidelined with a stress fracture which really hurt us,” said Reifenberg.
The junior said it was one of the most competitive races he had ever participated in.
“It’s awesome being in the Midwest region because we get a chance to race toe to toe with some of the best guys in the United States, not to mention all of the Kenyan and European transfer students, said Reifenberg. “To give an idea of the intensity of the race, All-American Ryan Vail, of no. 2 ranked Oklahoma State, fell right in front of me and I hurdled over him while in a pack of about 50-60 runners ... Vail ended up flying by me about 800 meters later, covered in blood, and went on to finish somewhere around 10th in the race.”
While both teams were disappointed in their performances at regionals, there was still some hope to glean from the finishes.
“Our team is still very young, the bulk of the distance squad comes from the sophomore class. It takes experience to run an 8k the way it was meant to be run, and even more for the 10k. The season went well. Everyone recorded [personal records] at some point during the year,” said Stein.
When asked about the team’s chances for next year, Reifenberg said for fans to “Expect some pretty great things from the team next year … we didn’t have any seniors running at regionals this year.”
Cross country season is now over, so runners on both teams will begin preparing for track season, which officially begins early next semester.
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