Women’s CC dealing with injuries

The Missouri Southern Lions came off last week’s recovery time with hopes of having a productive meet at the Missouri State Invitational in Springfield, Mo.

This was not the case though, as the Lions had a rough meet.

The MSU invite featured all Division-I schools, with Southern being the only Division-II school at the meet.

“I felt like the team ran somewhat flat,” Head Coach Patty Vavra said.   

The team was unfortunately without one of its key runners in Marlee Tegenkamp, along with some other valuable runners due to injuries.

“It seemed that with injuries hurting some of our runners, other runners just didn’t run well because they were not focused mentally,” Vavra said.

Because Southern was the sole Division-II school, they were not awarded team points for the meet.

The Lions would have placed No. 8 overall at the meet with an average team time of 20:03.11.

Two seniors were able to contribute the Lions’ first four finishes, along with two underclassmen landing into the top team performances as well.

Silvia Pineda claimed the team’s best finish as she would place No. 28 with a time of 18:49.17 seconds.

Freshman Nicole French had the team’s 2nd best finish as she ran to a 53rd place finish in a time of 20:07.05 seconds.

“I found out that some runners are motivationally tougher than others,” Vavra said.

“Everything that happens in the season makes us stronger, we will continue to work hard, and stay positive mentally.”

With only four weeks until the conference meet, Vavra hopes the team can stay healthy enough to have a strong team to run conference.

“The past two or three years the team has had a main nucleus, this year is a new team where leaders will have to step up and take on the leadership roles,” Vavra said.

“It’s going to be a challenge to try and repeat as regional champions.

“These next two meets are going to be pivotal points in our season.”