Belles place 28th at Regional Champs
BY MOLLY McVOY
Assistant Sports Editor
The last race has been run.
The Belles cross-country team finished its season at the Regional Championships at Ohio Northern University on Saturday. Saint Mary's finished 28th of 35 teams represented from Ohio, Michigan and Indiana.
"It was a kind of up and down meet," head coach Dave Barstis said. "Some runners did well, some did as expected, some didn't have such a good race."
Calvin College, who won the MIAA championships, won the meet Saturday. Baldwin Wallace College came in second, and Denison University finished third.
Melissa Goss finished first for Saint Mary's, coming in 166th with a time of 21 minutes, 7 seconds. Goss was followed by Melissa Miller, with a 21:13 and Krista Hildebrand, with a time of 21:52.
"I think we worked well as a team," Goss said. "I mean, we didn't have our best race, but everyone worked well together."
Goss has been troubled with injury all season and Barstis was pleased that she finished the season with her second best time.
"Melissa Goss has been injury-ridden all season, and she finally came out and ran her second best time," Barstis said. "That was great."
Amy Mizzone from Calvin won the race individually, finishing with a time of 17:42.
The next finishers were Jennifer Ernst of Hope College and Laura Sholts of Kenyon College.
Saint Mary's is ready for next season and pleased with the teamwork they developed over the course of this season.
"Overall, I'm pleased," Barstis said. "It was a good year."
Goss agrees and saw improvement during the year.
"Each meet, I think everyone improved," she said. "It didn't show in the last meet, but everyone had a really good attitude about it."
The Belles will be losing seniors Miller and Bridget Heffernan next year.
Junior Genevieve Yavello explained that it will be a big loss, but one she hopes they can fill.
"Hopefully, we will have people who will step up," she said. "It's going to be hard because they are all leaders."
All Sports Stories for Tuesday, November 16, 1999
