By Nick Newman
Already having run one meet in high humidity, BYU”s women”s cross country was unfazed Saturday, Oct. 7, 2006, as they crushed the field at the Walt Disney World Classic.
“The humidity didn”t matter this time,” junior Lisa Frischknecht said. “After Alabama we were ready. We got into a rhythm and stayed focused. We”re happy with how things went.”
Senior Anne Heiner finished fourth in the 5k race with a time of 17:59. Within ten seconds of her were teammates Lisa Frischknecht (sixth), Jenna Taylor Jensen (seventh) and Sarah Ingebretsen. The next six Cougars finished no more than a minute behind their leader, scoring 35 points en route to a 59-point pasting of second-place IPFW.
“Anne ran a very tough race,” Coach Patrick Shane said. “I was impressed with her performance.”
Because of the massive start with 287 runners, the Cougars started out slow but then found their rhythm and ran with each other to put together what coach Patrick Shane called “an impressive day”.
“I was about 50 girls back at the very start,” Heiner said. “I worked my way up with my teammates until I was fourth place, and with half a mile left I had the lead. I tried to hold on, but a couple girls got me with a quarter mile left. I felt I had a good effort and am happy with my race.”
BYU did not run their top runners, opting to leave them in Provo to train for bigger, upcoming meets, which makes Saturday”s thrashing even more impressive. Shane said he couldn”t have planned the meet any better.
“They did exactly what I hoped they would,” Shane said. “We gave our depth a chance to run well, and they did. I now have a better idea of how to put this all together for the championship weekends.”
Although Shane said all of his runners impressed him with their races, he said two of them, besides his leader, ran very well and stuck to him.
“Lisa [Frischknecht] started slow, but got better,” Shane said. “She had a breakthrough race and I am pleased with her performance. We had a great gap with our girls, and Katie Porter impressed me as well because she had been sick all week.”
Porter said her performance was due in large part to running with so many of her teammates.
“I think it mentally helps to have your teammates there,” Porter said. “You”re all together as a group, and it sure hurts, but you don”t want to let down the team. Misery loves company, I guess, and in a way it”s nice to know they”re hurting with you.”
Frischknecht concurred with her sick teammate.
“During the race it”s easy to stay positive when you have so many teammates running with you,” Frischknecht said. “We came here to represent BYU, and we had fun doing it.”
With that representation finishing so well, Shane said there is no telling how good this team can be with a month of championship racing coming soon.
“This is exactly what we needed to happen,” Shane said. “With this gap, we can drop a hat around so many girls to finish fifth. If we can stay healthy, we are lining ourselves up for a great finish for the year.”
