CALVIN SPORTS REPORT FOR SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1999

MEN'S AND WOMEN'S CROSS COUNTRY

OSHKOSH, WI - The nationally-ranked Calvin men's cross country team found that when it has "Frens in high places", the Knights are one of the top cross country teams in the nation as Calvin captured the championship of the Wisconsin-Oshkosh Pre-National Invitational Saturday afternoon with 71 points.

On the women's side, the top-ranked Calvin women's cross country team found that defending its national championship of a year ago will not be an easy task as the Knights finished second with 98 points, 10 points behind fourth-ranked St. Olaf of Minnesota which took first place in a surprising upset. Saturday's races were held at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, site of the 1999 NCAA III Cross Country Championships.

As a result, several of the top men's and women's cross country teams in the midwest were competing on Saturday in order to gain experience for hopeful trips to the nationals on November 20. In the men's race, Calvin finished 20 points ahead of top-ranked North Central (IL) and second-ranked Wisconsin-LaCrosse and 23 points ahead of third-ranked Wisconsin-Whitewater. Junior Dan Hoekstra of Kalamazoo Christian High School led the Calvin charge with a fourth place individual finish, clocking in with a career-best time of 24:42. Hoekstra jumped out with the lead group from the opening gun and maintained his position through the completion of the 10K race, finishing 11 seconds behind winner Dan Peso of Wisconsin-LaCrosse.

Hoekstra was one of four Calvin runners in the top-20 as sophomore Joel Klooster (Chatham, ON) was ninth with a career-best time of 25:02 while junior Paul Petersen (Crawfordsville, IN) was 18th in 25:15 and sophomore Justin Momany-Pfruender (Midland) 18th in 25:15. The key to Calvin's first place finish however was the return of fifth-year senior Kent Frens from an early-seson injury as the Fremont High School graduate was the "caboose" in the Knight train, finishing 28th in 25:33. Saturday's race was the first full competition of the year for Frens who earned All-America honors at the 1997 NCAA III Cross Country Championships with a 14th place individual finish. Freshman Michael Richardson of Wyoming Godwin Heights High School and sophomore Peter Armstrong (Lacey, WA) completed Calvin's top-seven with strong finishes as Richardson was 64th in 26:05 and Armstrong 79th in 26:21.

"Today's performance might have been the single-biggest victory in Calvin men's cross country history," said Al Hoekstra, who shares men's cross country coaching duties at Calvin with Brian Diemer. "We received tremendous individual performances from our top-seven, particularly Dan Hoekstra but Kent Frens was the difference for us as a team. Having Kent run as our fifth man and providing the leadership that he brings as a fifth-year senior makes the difference in us being a great team instead of just a good team."

In the women's race, fourth-ranked St. Olaf made claim that it will be one of the strong contending teams for the NCAA Division III national championship as the Oles were able to pack in enough runners inside Calvin's top-five to surprise the Knights by 10 points. St. Olaf also finished 49 points ahead of third place Wisconsin-Oshkosh which came into Saturday's race ranked third nationally.

"It was definitely an upset but we knew beforehand that St. Olaf was a very good team and they deserved to win this afternoon," said Calvin women's cross country coach Nancy Meyer. "We will probably lose our number-one ranking but hopefully that will get the monkey off of our back and put the pressure on someone else. I think today's race served as a bit of a wake-up call that we have work to do and that will help keep us focused through the remainder of the season. We weren't hitting on all of our cylinders this afternoon but I'm not disappointed with our performance because we had some very encouraging races."

Senior Lisa Timmer (Ann Arbor) had the biggest race of the day for Calvin as she placed seventh individually with a season-best time of 17:50, 46 seconds behind winner Rhaina Echols of the University of Chicago. Echols is considered one of the favorites to win the individual national title this fall after having finished third individually at the 1998 NCAA III Cross Country Championships. Sophomore Erinn Boot of Kalamazoo Christian High School ran second for Calvin as she finished 13th individually with a time of 18:00 while senior Liz Kuipers (Sarnia, ON) was 21st with a time of 18:11 and senior Amy Mizzone (Wayne, NJ) 22nd in 18:12. Senior Sarah Gritter (Wauwatosa, WI) was Calvin's fifth runner, placing 35th in 18:34 in only her second race of the 1999 season. Gritter's time of 18:34 was more than a minute faster than her season-opening time last week at the Loyola Lakefront Invitational. Junior Rashel Bayes (Sparta) and sophomore Lindsay Carrier (Tri-Unity Christian) completed Calvin's group of finishers as Bayes was 38th in 18:38 and Carrier 48th in 18:48.

Both Calvin cross country teams will now break for two weeks, returning to action on October 23 when they compete at the Olivet Nazarene Invitational in Kankakee, Illinois. -end-