Belles fail to meet goals, finish 7th
By MOLLY McVOY
Assistant Sports Editor
The weather was beautiful, the excitement was there and the entire Saint Mary's cross country team was healthy.
The Belles were ready to move up in the standings in the MIAA league championships on Saturday, but found a mediocre finish instead.
"I think we were disappointed in how we finished as a team," senior Melissa Miller said. "We ended up as a pack really well, so we were happy about that. But, as a pack, we didn't finish as up in front as we would have liked."
Looking to improve on their eighth-place finish at the MIAA Jamboree in September, the Belles finished tied for seventh of nine teams competing in the championships.
Saint Mary's tied with Defiance College this weekend, a team the Belles had defeated at the Yellow Jacket Invitational — their last conference matchup. This, coupled with the health of the entire team, gave the Belles high hopes for this weekend's meet.
"It was good that we beat the one conference team that was [at the Yellow Jacket Invitational]," junior Genevieve Yavello said last week. "That points us in a good direction for the championships. We are really hoping to improve our finishes this weekend [at the championships]."
Calvin College, however, won the meet and took five of the top six individual spots. Amy Mizzone, from Calvin College, won the meet with a time of 18 minutes, 15 seconds. She was named All-MIAA first team along with five other Calvin runners.
The only other school represented in the first-team nominations was Hope College, with senior Jenny Ernst being named. She finished third overall in the championships and was the only non-Calvin runner to finish in the top eight spots.
Hope finished second in the meet behind Calvin with Alma College and Kalamazoo College coming in third and fourth, respectively.
Yavello came in first for Saint Mary's on Saturday, finishing 60th with a time of 21:29. After the injury to sophomore Melissa Goss, Yavello has been the top runner for Saint Mary's.
"We raced well," Yavello said, "but the scores don't show that."
As was the case all season, the Belles continued in their pack-running style with their top five runners finishing within 45 seconds of one another. Their next goal is to move up the entire pack in the race.
"The pack works together and each person looks at the person in front of them," Yavello said. "Basically, we push each other. When you're together with your team, it so much easier to pass people. When you have a teammate running right with you, not only does she push you to move forward, she reminds you why you're racing."
Overall, Saint Mary's cross country team would have liked to have finished higher on the season, but realize the Belles are still a team in the process of learning what it means to compete in collegiate cross country. They are in their third year of existence and hope to improve as next season approaches.
"We would have wanted to do better overall," Miller said. "But, I think everyone should be proud of this season. We're still a young team, and I think everyone should be proud that they stuck with it."
The Belles deal with typical problems of a young team. They hope to work on recruiting, retention and standings in the MIAA next season.
"We haven't all talked about [our goals] as a team yet," Miller said. "We, of course, want to increase our ranking in the MIAA. We have a lot of girls at the beginning of the season. We need to work on keeping them."
All Sports Stories for Tuesday, November 2, 1999
