EGGERS LEADS THE LAKERS AT REGIONALS

Another honor has been received by an Iowa Lakes Community College cross country runner.

Freshman Mackenzie Eggers got the big honor over the weekend for her 6th place finish at the Region XI Championships held at NIACC last Saturday. That place garnered her 2nd team all-region honors. The top 5 finishers are named to the 1st team and the 2nd five to the 2nd team.

Eggers is just the 2nd Laker to receive such an honor in the short history of the program. Coach Mike Nichols said, “Even though it wasn’t her best time of the season, it was by far her best race. Mackenzie has always been able to raise her level at the big meets.” Her time of 21:52 led the Lakers.

Fellow freshman Cassie Hanson who has been the number one runner most of the season just missed the all region team with an 11th place finish in 22:15. Freshman Juli Larson rounded out the scoring for the Lakers with a 18th place finish in 23:52. Non-counting runners for the Lakers were sophomores Kacie Schmidt finishing 21st in 25:21, Tara Wielenga 23rd in 26:03, and Alison Treanor 24th in 26:11.

In a unique scoring system to allow all squads to score in the women’s race, only 3 women counted with the 4 and 5 runners acting as pushers. Iowa Central won the meet with 10 points. Iowa Lakes was 4th as a team with 32 points.

On a side note, Coach Mike Nichols was voted ‘women’s coach of the year’ for the region by his peers, sharing the honor with Greg Hodak of Ellsworth.

In the men’s competition, the Lakers were lead by freshman Josh Eaton as they have been all year. Unfortunately for Eaton, he fell a half mile into the race. He was able to continue and finished 18th in 30:15. He was followed by fellow freshmen Logan McDonald in 25th in 31:31 and Cody Mortenson 34th in 35:24. Iowa Central also won the men’s meet with a near perfect score of 17 points. The Laker men did not score as a team.

Both men’s and women’s teams will finish the season at the NJCAA National Championships on Nov. 5th at Kansas University.