Chelsea Gubbels | Contributing Writer
The Buena Vista University (BVU) men’s cross country team wrapped up their third meet of the season at the Briar Cliff Invite in Sioux City Saturday, Oct. 12, with an 8th place finish out of 12 teams. Two members of the team finished in the top 40 of the 133 member course. John Surber and Alex Lamp finished 34th and 37th, respectively. John took close to one minute off of his previously best time, finishing with a time of 27:08.12.
John Surber, a freshman runner, commented on what he believed to be a contributing factor in the team’s, and his own, personal success.
“Overall the team has been working really hard and is putting in quality workouts. I think that has contributed; same goes for my individual success as well. We just push every day to get better. We all got out to good starts and finished our races strong. Plus it was just a perfect day to race,” Surber said.
The team has many strengths ranging from team dedication to solid endurance.
“We all have a good sense of our own strengths, and I think that allows us to help each other out. We push each other. We don’t have much depth, but we do have groups that work together. We also excel at finishing the race hard and not bogging out in the first three miles. We also stay positive and look to each practice as a way to better ourselves even if the day before was bad. We don’t slack and give everything we have to our workouts and races,” Surber said.
They also recognize the areas that need to be addressed including staying healthy and injury free. Although they have various things to work on they remain optimistic.
“We need to better our overall fitness, continue to build mileage, keep our bodies healthy, stay away from injuries, and continue to build the ability to go longer faster. We also need to build on a little hill training. We also need to strive to push more in the middle of the race. The end will take care of itself,” Surber said.
The team looks forward to what the rest of the season has in store and has their sights set on improving before regionals.
“To continue to improve ourselves and push for faster times, we want to capitalize on the [University of South Dakota] meet to set us up for conference. We hope to place better than last year. Then we’ll move on to regionals and see what we can do there. Nationals would be great to end the season, but I guess we’ll have to just wait and see,” Surber said.
The Beavers are back in action this Saturday when they take part in the Tim Young Invitational at the University of South Dakota.
Graphic by Aaron Burns
