Article by Jeremy Nelson
Houghton, NY – CCC's Matthew Haynes got the opportunity to travel to Houghton, New York last Saturday to participate in the 2014 NCCAA National Cross Country Championships hosted by Houghton College.
The championships hosted by Houghton consisted of men's and women's races in both divisions NCCAA I and NCCAA II. In all there were over 375 competitors racing last Saturday.
Haynes competed in the NCCAA I men's 8K race where he finished 157th out of 195 total runners with a time of 30:57.3. The race was won by Emmanuel College's Tucker Hilley, who finished with a time of 25:05.8, just one second in front of Bryant Keirns of Oklahoma Christian University.
"It was about 32 degrees with a very light snow beginning to fall when the men's race started", said CCC head coach Dan Swaney. "The snowfall gradually got stronger as the race went on. It was just falling hard enough toward the end that as the runners ran into the snow in the fourth mile and again in the last 200-300 meters, the flakes would fly in their eyes and disrupt their rhythm. Matt ran well for the first two miles of the race and had a shot at breaking 30 minutes for the third time this season before falling off significantly in the third and fourth miles. It was nice to see him come back with a strong final mile in his last race of the year."
For the Tiger cross country program, this was the last race of the year. Coach Swaney summed his first season saying, "This season definitely had its ups and downs and some things didn't go quite as I had expected, but I'm happy with the effort that our men's and women's teams gave. There were a few goals I had for the team that were, I'll admit, a little on the high side and we didn't achieve some of them so that was a little disappointing but in many ways I think it's okay to not be satisfied because that gives us all a little more motivation to do well next year. I've also learned that when a new coach is trying to make some major changes to a program it's not uncommon for the first year to be a little rough. Now we have a better understanding of where we are and what it's going to take to do better next year and reach those goals we didn't get this season. Now we need to start getting ready for the Track season. I'm already looking forward to next Cross Country season because I think we're going to do a lot better."
