2006 NWAACC Cross Country Season
The Saint Women Bring Home Hardware From
The 2006 NWAACC Cross Country Championships!
Sheryl Page
(2006 NWAACC Cross Country Champion)
Read more about Sheryl
The women of Mt Hood receiving the third place trophy for the 2006 NWAACC Cross Country Championships
The 2006 Cross Country season concluded on Saturday, November 11th as the Saints traveled to Spokane, Washington to compete in the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges (NWAACC) Cross Country Championships.
 The Mt Hood women’s cross country team ran hard to earn a third place team trophy. Surprising many of the 12 other teams with their effort, the Saints were expected to come in 4th or 5th as a team. The women’s first place team trophy went to the Community Colleges of Spokane while Clark College edged out Mt Hood, by a very narrow margin of 3 points, for the second place trophy. What makes this feat even more spectacular is that Mt Hood did not even have a women’s team in 2005.
Sheryl Page (running a time of 18:25.41) was not only the top finisher for the Saints she was also the 2006 Individual NWAACC Cross Country Champion. Amber Glunt, who had never run cross country before, came in third overall with a personal best performance of 19:01.63. Both Page and Glunt became All-Americans with their performances.
Annie Hayward ran close to her personal best with a time of 19:35.04 and finishing 11th overall. Teammate Hannah Gustafson also ran very strong with a time of 21:09.99. Brittany Beedle (running a time of 22:23.44) and Ashley Mulvaney (running 22:33.21) were Mt. Hood’s 5th and 6th girls.
Other than Mulvaney, all of the women will be back to compete for Mt Hood in 2007. Head Coach Matt Hart said “All of these ladies are loaded with talent and I’m excited to see them continue to challenge themselves and improve. These ladies made all of NWAACC take notice and see that the red, white and black are back. I think we will be the team to beat next year.”
Mt Hood’s Men Have a Run of Bad Luck.
The men of Mt Hood concluded their season on a difficult course with a 6th place finish. Jarrett Ziemer was Mt Hood’s first runner and finished in a time of 27:28.30. Richard Fischer was the Saints’ second runner and ran 28:33.33. Juan De La Cruz (running 28:56.52), Alex Boyles (running 29:13.91) and Nick Orvis (running 30:37.19) made up the rest of the men’s cross country team.
 “All of our guys had great performances throughout the year. They all were able to set new life-time PR’s (personal records). Unfortunately, the championship course was very challenging and the time doesn’t reflect the effort our men put into the race.” Coach Hart stated.
Mt. Hood competed with only five men, which is the minimum number of athletes needed to field a team. Hart reflects “Recruiting went very well last year. I signed several district and state champions from Washington and Oregon so I anticipated having over ten male runners. This is when we got hit with bad luck. Though many of these athletes signed a letter of intent with Mt Hood, they were still able to attend four year colleges…and many of them did. We lost 7 athletes before our season even started. Many of these men were studs and would have helped our team a lot.”
The bad luck continued up to the very end of the season when Jarrett Ziemer was involved in a car accident just after Southern Region Championships. Ziemer sustained injuries serious enough to possibly prevent his participation in the NWAACC Championships. Though his doctor advised him not to run, Ziemer would not let his team down. “He ran well but I could tell he wasn’t a 100% and after the race he mentioned that his shoulder was hurting throughout the whole race.” Hart said.
The men’s cross country team is once again in a rebuilding phase. Richard Fischer has completed his eligibility for XC at Mt Hood as he used one year of eligibility at Southern Oregon University. Sophomore Alex Boyles also ran his last cross country race in the red, white and black. Ziemer, De La Cruz and Orvis will be back in 2007 to help resurrect the men’s cross country program. “The men we have coming back are going to be a very strong nucleus to our team next year.” Hart concluded.
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