Lange earns First-Team All Conference honors
BIG RAPIDS, Mich. – The Michigan Tech cross country squads saw six all-conference performances as the No. 20 nationally ranked men placed third and the women took fifth at the GLIAC Cross Country Championships at the Katke Golf Course on Saturday. In total, the Huskies came away with six All-GLIAC honorees.
Quotable
“I was pleased overall with our level of effort and competitiveness today. We’ve been talking about making sure we maximize those things in the most important races and I saw us chasing that throughout the races today,” Tech head coach Robert Young said. “In some cases we had athletes give great efforts but just not have their best level of performance, but we also had some nice breakthroughs.
“For the men, Michael Marshall really stepped up and brought his best race of the season and among his best efforts in his time as a Husky. Alex Li continued her rapid rise and is quickly becoming a force for us. We are quite proud of our 6 all-conference athletes. Sam Lange showed again he can race with the best in the country and we feel there is just a little more out there for regionals and beyond. While Michael Dennis, Tucker Ringhand and Colman Lenci all ran races very deserving of the honor. Sophia Rhein tried out a new strategy and learned a good deal about her ideal race along the way to her strong finish. Cedar Gordon ran one of the best races we’ve seen from her, executing her ideal race plan very well to chase down the well-deserved honor.”
“Our GLIAC championship on the men’s side showcased our depth, as we had 4 runners get All-Conference honors and that is definitely something to be proud of. Michael Marshall had a standout performance and seems to be coming into form at just the right time,” Assistant coach Luke Moore added. “Our women’s team ran gutsy races all around. We tried different race plans today so we can dial in our effort for Regionals in two weeks. It paid off big time for freshman Alex Li. She had an excellent GLIAC debut, making her way through the field in epic fashion.”
Michigan Tech senior Sam Lange for the second-consecutive year placed sixth at the conference championships to earn All-GLIAC First Team honors leading the No. 20 nationally-ranked men’s squad to a bronze finish, scoring 79 points. No. 4 ranked Grand Valley State put together a perfect score of 15 points while Saginaw Valley finished 22 points ahead of the Huskies for runner-up honors.
Lange neared his personal-best for 8k with his 24:37.2 effort backed by three All-GLIAC Second Team performances by Michael Dennis (14th-place), Tucker Ringhand (15th-place) and Colman Lenci (20th-place) in his GLIAC Championships debut. Dennis and Ringhand finished together clocking 25:09.7 and 25:09.8, respectively. Lenci was nine seconds back with a time of 25:18.9
Michael Marshall had an incredible day for the Black & Gold running a 10 second personal-best to score 24 points as Tech’s fifth runner.
Zeb Swager (25:34.5) and Callen Carrier (25:35.4) finished in 31st and 32nd place, respectively to round out the top-seven.
Sophomore standout Sophia Rhein was the low-stick for the women, pacing the 6k course in 21:49.1 for a new personal-best helping Michigan Tech to a fifth-place finish, scoring 131 points. Rhein earned Second Team ALL-GLIAC with her 11th-place individual finish. Saginaw Valley was in reach taking 4th-place in the team race scoring 123 points as Grand Valley took home the victory with 22 points.
The dynamic duo of Cedar Gordon and Alex Li were pivotal in the team finish, seeing veteran Gordon take 20th overall to earn Second Team All-GLIAC with a time of 22:21 marking a 10 second personal-best. Li, a native of Springfield, Missouri, was the sixth freshman to cross the finish line in a new personal-best time of 22:50.0, translating into 26 points for the Black & Gold.
Junior Ingrid Halverson was five spots back clocking 23:00.2 to contribute 31 points to the team scores with Bridget Burns improving on her place from her freshman year, scoring 43 points and placing 49th in the field to round out the top-five.
Junior Claire Endres (23:24.9) and first-year Erica Kazin (23:36.9) placed 50th and 53rd, respectively as Tech’s sixth and seventh runners. Both performances were near personal-bests for the duo.
Up Next
Michigan Tech travels back to Romeoville, Illinois, for the NCAA Midwest Regional hosted by Lewis on Saturday. The men will trek the 10k course at 11 a.m. with the women to follow on the 6k course at 12:15 p.m.
