Great Lakes Regional Website Results

After hosting a very successful Horizon League Championship, the UDM men's and women's cross country team is on their way to Bloomington, IN, for this year's NCAA Great Lakes Regional, held at the IU Cross Country Championship course on Saturday.

“We are looking forward to a competition that is unlike any other in NCAA sports,” said head coach Guy Murray. “We all line up and the gun goes and everyone gets the same opportunity at the NCAA qualifying berths.”

“The Great Lakes Regional is traditionally the toughest, although not quite as strong nationally as we have seen, but it might mean it is more intense as teams have to run well and beat people to get in where some years, we know who is going and they cruise focusing on nationals.”

The Titan women are coming off a very good performance at the Horizon League Championships, where Detroit took sixth in a very close middle of the pack finish. The Titans were just three points behind for fifth place and 30 off of fourth place. UDM will look to move up from its 32nd-place performance in the 6k race last year.

“We have a lot of rookies in key spots and we have been getting our top five averaging as good as our #1 last year,” commented Murray. “If we do that here, we are looking at a 200+ point improvement from last year.”

The women's team is led by senior Beata Gorzynska (Ilawa, Poland/Mazurski of Olsztynie) who has already had a fantastic final season. She was the top runner two week's ago taking 21st in 20:14. Freshman Alexandria Vintevoghel (Casco, MI/Marine City) continues to impress in her rookie campaign and was just behind Gorzynska at the league meet coming in 22nd in 20:18.

Some experience does return for the women with senior Jennifer DeFauw (Harper Woods, MI/Grosse Pointe North), junior Kristie Ferrans (Carleton, MI/Monroe) and sophomores Stephanie Rossman (Caledonia, MI/Caledonia) and Kirstin Mooney (Stirling, ON/St. Theresa Catholic), but three other freshmen will also be part of the squad in Katrina Oberski (Clyde, MI/Port Huron), Sarah Martinez (Grand Blanc, MI/Flint Powers) and Katie Weishaar (Plymouth, MI/Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard).

The last time out, the men's team finished fifth with 126 points at the HL Championship with junior Pat Liederbach (Petoskey, MI/Petoskey) leading the way placing 10th in the 8k with a time of 26:11. The finish earned him second team All-League honors for the third time in his career, just the third Titan to ever record at least three All-Conference accolades.

The men's 10k field will feature such nationally-ranked teams as #10 Wisconsin, #26 Butler, #28 Ohio State and #31 Indiana. Detroit had a great race at last year's event taking 19th, its first top 20 finish since 1998.

“We hope to finish on a strong note with our goal to score less than last years 578,” said Murray. “I am not sure it will move us up in the standings as the teams from last year have all improved as well, but I would like to maintain a top 20 spot.”

Aside from Liederbach leading the pack, the Titans will look for sophomore Alex Vanias (Leroy, MI/Pine River) to keep up his improving sophomore and improve on last season's team leading 79th place in a time of 33:14 at the GLR.

Senior Alex Gould (Comstock Park, MI/Comstock Park) has had a tremendous senior season and will look to close it out in a great way, while junior Alex Harris (Huntington Woods, MI/Shrine) got in the top 20 at the league meet's 8k in 27:07. Kevin Smalley (Gladwin, MI/Gladwin), Bob Radlich (Cheektowaga, NY / Cleveland Hill) and Derek Hoerman (Canton,MI/Canton) will round out the line-up.

“Pat and Alex Vanias were sub-100 runners a year ago and having a healthy Alex Harris and a Alex Gould running well enough to get under 125 where our #4 was last year,” said Murray. “Radlich and Hoerman will make their regional debuts and Derek's first appearance on the main travel roster. We think these guys can give us the #5 we need after the top four get the bulk of the work done.”

The event gets underway at 11 a.m., with the women going first in what is looking like unseasonable warm conditions. High 60's and sunny are in the forecast which should make the course very dry