Chippewas look to end decade-long drought at MAC Championships
Following a successful regular season, the Central Michigan cross country team is preparing for the Mid-American Conference Championships on Saturday in Canton, Ohio.
The Chippewas are currently ranked third in the MAC on the women’s side and 10th in the Great Lakes Region, while the men are ranked fifth in the MAC and 15th in the region.
CMU is fresh off of an impressive performance at Pre-Nationals, with five runners posting personal records.
“Every meet is a stepping stone. Each met allows us to work on different strategies to get us ready for this portion of the season,” said Head Coach Matt Kaczor.
The Chippewas are lead by two-time All-MAC selection Nate Ghena and Silas Dekalita on the men’s side. The women are lead by former MAC Runner of the Week Kirsten Olling, Kelly Schubert and Samantha Allmacher. However, Kaczor expects some of the younger runners to be big contributors as well.
“Big pieces to our success will come down to Joseph (Emmanuel), Mark (Beckerman), Luke (Anderson) and Spencer (Nousain),” he said. “For the women it will be on Hannah (Davis), Alyssa Dyer and Breanne (Lesnar) to see if we can finish off with a solid top five.”
The CMU women finished fifth last year in the MAC and have not won a conference title since 2000, while the men finished in third place in 2014 and last won a MAC title in 2004.
The men’s 8K will begin at 11 a.m. and the women’s 6K will start at noon.
“There is a strong distance tradition here,” Kaczor said. “We hope to continue that.”
