Taitt, Mills, and Wombles Achieve Personal Best Times

Both the men's and women's Lynx cross country teams returned to racing on Saturday at the Border States Cross Country Invitational in Edwardsville, IL after a two week break for training. On a tough 5K course the women placed 17th out of 21 teams (mostly four year college and universities). Leading the Lynx were Christien Taitt in 91st place with a time of 21:05 and Jenine Mills in 103rd place with a time of 21:28. "This was the toughest course we've raced on to date, said Lynx coach Erin Verbeck. These two women did not let that deter them and ran personal best times. We are gearing up for our Region meet in two weeks and these two are racing very well."

Rounding out the scoring for the women were Toni Ortega with a time of 24:39; Mary Daum with a time of 24:54; and Betsy Scarpaci with a time of 30:26. "We've got to get our number 3, 4 and 5 runners moved up if we are to win our Region meet. They have the ability, we just have to race like we are capable."

The men's team placed 19th out of 22 teams (mostly four year college and universities) without one of their top 5 due to an injury sustained during the race. Finishing first for the Lynx was freshman Clint Wombles in 117th place with a time of 28:50, a personal best on a very tough course. "As a whole I was content with the way the mens' team raced. We haven't raced in a few weeks so I expected us to be a bit rusty. When comparing our times to the course we ran on 3 weeks ago, we're running the same times or slightly slower on a course that is at least 1 minute slower." Rounding out the scoring for the Lynx were Demond Wilbourn in 30:34; Ryan Maisenbacher in 31:02; Jordan Gerard in 31:07 and Mark Shannahan in 32:05. "We've got a lot of work to do before our Region meet, but I think we've still got a shot to substantially improve and surprise some people over the next two weeks if we mentally toughen up and make racing well a priority."

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