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In its third season under the direction of Dave Smith ’70, the Bulldog men harriers broke through another barrier and climbed into third place at the KCAC championships.
Led by the all-conference finishes of junior Israel Ortiz in fifth place and Brent Bailey in 15th, the Bulldog men came home with both their best individual and team finishes in almost 20 years. Rounding out the Bulldogs’ top four finishers were junior Jacob Merrick and freshman Shawn Griffin.
The following week, the Bulldogs traveled to Winfield for the NAIA Region IV championships where Ortiz finished fourth in a school record time (26:03.4) for the 8-kilometer distance to qualify for the NAIA National meet in Louisville, Ky., on November 18 th. As a team the Bulldogs finished fourth, again a team best in recent years.
A bright spot lies ahead for the men’s harrier program as it had no seniors on its 2006 roster.
“We still have a ways to go to win a KCAC title, but the foundation for a continually improving program is there. We just have to keep working, both the guys in the program, and ourself on the recruiting trail.”
The 2006 Lady Bulldogs’ squad had four runners, one shy of the required five to score as a team. “Finding girls interested in running beyond their high school career is a little more difficult than finding boys.”
The girls’ team was made up of three sophomores and a freshman. It was youngest of the four, Mira Coulter, who led the way and topped the Lady Bulldogs with a 27 th place finish in the conference before running a season best 22:04.7 at the regional championships.
“As our teams become more competitive, we’re finding recruits are more anxious to visit with us about becoming a Bulldog. We just have to continue building both our numbers and increasing our quality.”
