Story by MAYAN PAZ Photos by MAX BOWYER
Tiger Media Network
The Fort Hays State University cross-country teams went on the road this Friday to compete at the highly rated Gans Creek Classic, hosted by the University of Missouri. The competition was divided into sections, and the Tigers competed against other DII schools nationwide. The women’s team came home with the overall DII team competition after a fantastic race from all competitors. Emily Diercks led the way with a second-place finish among DII athletes and a third-place finish in the overall rankings, passing many athletes from known DI schools, including Tenessee and Stanford.
The men’s team also had a solid performance, finishing 11th overall in the team competition, with Jaret Pfizenmaier earning a top-10 finish in the DII standings.
Prior to the meet, the women were ranked no. 30 in the nation. This win is expected to push them higher in the rankings ahead of the regional meet, which will determine if the team qualifies for the national championship. FHS Head Coach Jason McCullough expected the team to do well. Still, while speaking with TMN a few days before the race, he did not expect such a high-level performance.
“We lost to Washburn in at the last time we raced them about three weeks ago,” McCullough said ahead of the race. “We want to get closer to them this time and see if we can give them a good fight.”
To say the least, that goal was achieved with tremendous success, as Washburn, ranked higher than the Tigers before last Friday’s race, finished 7th place overall, with their top runners placing 44 and 45 in the overall rankings and outside the top 20 performers among DII schools.
The Tigers’ effort, however, produced no less than five runners in the top 25 overall rankings, three athletes in the Top-10 DII table, and five in the top 15.
Deircks said it was a team effort for the women to finish first.
“I feel like everyone on the team performed amazing, everyone contributed just enough to bring home the win,” she said. “All the girls gave their best effort and pushed through their own challenges to help support the team. Our success wasn’t just about one individual, everyone played a big part in our success by working together as a team.”
This race was the first time the Tigers had to run a distance of eight kilometers for the men and six kilometers for the women after the earlier races in the season were for shorter distances.
“We know that even though it’s our first time running the longer distances, our team has trained to gain the necessary milage, and I expect everyone to be at their best,” Mccullough said before the race.
Diercks also mentioned the different distance and her prior concerns about it.
“I feel like everything went really well, personally, especially considering it was my first time running a 6k,” she said. “I was nervous at first because of the distance of the race. I wasn’t sure what to expect or how everything would go. Despite this, I think I ended up running a smart and strong race. However, I know I have a lot more potential and can accomplish a lot more.”
The teams will head to Emporia on October 11 for another race before transitioning to championship mode ahead of the conference and regional championships.
“I think that the women’s team is performing incredibly well this season, and I’m super proud of how well everyone is running. We have some really great athletes on the team this year, and everyone keeps improving in each race,” Diercks said. “I think that everyone is super excited of what we are accomplishing this year, and winning Gans Creek has opened our eyes to what we can actually accomplish when we work together as a team.”
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