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Season Recap
Men’s Cross-Country – Highlighting the 2007 men’s cross country season was senior Israel Ortiz bringing home McPherson’s first individual KCAC cross country title since 1977 when McPherson College Athletic Hall of Famer Dave Burgess turned the trick.
Led by Ortiz’s front running, the Bulldog men placed second in the team race, the highest team finish by a McPherson squad since the Bulldogs’ runner-up finish of 1977 and titles in 1975 and 1976.
Joining Ortiz on the All-KCAC first team was junior Brent Bailey, who recovered from a fall around the one-mile mark of the championship race to finish seventh in his collegiate career, personal best. Sophomore Shaun Griffin missed receiving All-KCAC honors by one spot as he came in 16th overall.
The first weekend in November, Ortiz and Bailey qualified for the November 17th NAIA National Championships, held in Kenosha, Wisconsin, by placing 3rd and 11th at the Region IV meet in Omaha. 2007 marks the first time the Bulldogs have qualified more than one individual for a national championship meet since the 1970’s.
At the NAIA National Championships, Ortiz placed 151st and Bailey 246th, both running times that with the difficulty of the course would rank among their top four all-time bests.
Senior Jacob Merrick concluded his collegiate harrier career at the Region IV meet with the best time of his collegiate career, finishing 27th, just ahead of freshman Matthew Brown’s 40-second improvement of his season best.
Women’s Cross-Country – Led by freshman Tiffany Poet’s 20th place finish at the KCAC Championships, the Lady Bulldog harriers ran as a scoring team for the first team since 2000, finishing seventh overall at the conference meet held at Marion Reservoir.
A week later, Poet, who rewrote the McPherson College women’s 5-kilometer all-time list this fall, ran the 5-kilometer distance in 19:59.2, finishing 18th overall, at the Region IV Championships to become the first Lady Bulldog to break the 20-minute cross country barrier.
Battling back-and-forth throughout the season for the Bulldogs’ #2 and #3 spots were junior Megan Meyer and freshman Verity Spencer.
With only one senior on the women’s squad and two on the men’s, the foundation has been laid for a growing and continuing to improve harrier program at McPherson College.
