GCC Cross-Country Team Performs Well at U.P. Championships

Left to right: Dominic Beckman, Kyle Pallin, Kyle Weber, Mike Gering, Lucas Scherer, Sam Kolesar

MARQUETTE, MI - Sunday, October 24, 2010 - The Gogebic Community College cross-country running team peaked just in time for the U.P. Collegiate Championships at Northern Michigan University on Friday. Gogebic's Kari Strand finished the 6K race in 30th place in the 52 runner field in a time of 26:05. Gogebic mens' team was lead by freshmen Ryan Goings who placed 35th out of 69 runners in 29:49, closely followed by Dominc Beckman in 29:56, Lucas Scherer in 29:58, Kyle Weber in 30:33, Kyle Pallin in 31:32, Sam Kolesar in 34:44 and Mike Gering in 35:33.

"I was very impressed with everybody's effort," said Coach Will Andresen. "We had four personal records today and every single runner improved their time this season - four runners improved their time by over two minutes over the course of the year." Andresen also noted that the team has never had any runner under the 30-minute 8K threshold, but at the UP Championships they had three runners under 30 minutes.

"It was a great year, lots of hard work, lots of improvement - and we beat some four-year colleges."

All four of Gogebic's freshmen runners plan on returning for another strong showing next year.