With a light wind but otherwise perfect conditions, the cross country teams were given home course advantage for the Region V championship Saturday at the Baldwin City Municipal Golf Course.
Sophomore Donnie Gardner led the men by taking 14th place with a time of 27:00.06. Gardner earned all-conference honors, but failed to make the top five athletes who will continue on to the national tournament. Gardner fell short of the designation by 28 seconds.
The Lindenwood University and MidAmerica Nazarene University teams finished first and second, respectively.
Head coach Rob Mallinder said the possibility of going to nationals was out of Gardner’s hands after the race.
“Donnie did what he needed to do,” he said. “He was just unlucky.”
Gardner said he has room to improve and plans to do it during the outdoor track season and over the summer.
“I was definitely nervous going into the race. My whole body felt nervous,” he said. “I’m going to put in a lot more miles next summer than I did this summer.”
Gardner said he was staying positive about missing nationals.
“I think I gave it my all,” he said. “I was disappointed, but there’s always next year.”
Both men’s and women’s teams took ninth place. Mallinder said if the men’s team had run well, it could have easily placed eighth.
“We had some fine performances that helped offset not-so-good ending-season performances,” he said. “As a team, we deserved to place ninth.”
Sophomore Scott Chaney finished as the second runner for Baker with a time of 28:43.58. Sophomore Alex Dingman finished with a time of 29:38.29, followed by junior Zac Towns with a time of 30:18.88 and junior Kyle Paul who finished with a time of 30:31.74.
For the second time this season, the women took a full team to a meet. Mallinder said he was happy with the women’s efforts.
“For us to struggle all season long, to put together a scoring five, it was very pleasing to place ninth out of the 14 schools in our region,” he said.
One runner Mallinder said he was happy with was sophomore Katey Wegemer, who finished with a time of 24:14.98. Wegemer had not run in a single meet this year, but played a big role in the place the team took.
“I was very happy that Katey Wegemer stepped up,” Mallinder said. “Otherwise, we very easily could have been 10th.”
Sophomore Amber Keith, who has steadily led the ‘Cats over the course of the year, finished the race as Baker’s top female runner with a time of 22:04.92.
Sophomore Katie James came in second on the team with a time of 23:00:04. Sophomores Shawnee Barron and Ariel Penner finished with times of 23:27.15 and 23:32.96. Junior Jessica Uhler came in with a time of 23:53.26.
Mallinder said he couldn’t have asked for anything more from the women.
“I think the women should be satisfied,” he said. “They went out with a bang.”