Dell’Orco, Kell lead Bulldogs

Injuries affected both the men's and women's cross country teams last weekend at the Brissman-Lundeen Invitational in Rock Island, Ill.

The women finished fourth out of 24 teams and the men fifth out of 26 teams.

Juniors Anne Ratermann and Michael Dial finished third on their respective teams two weeks ago but missed the meet last weekend because of injury.

"[Ratermann makes up] about 40 or 50 places," women's head coach John Cochrane said. "She makes a difference. We've been trying to develop [runners] five, six and seven. [With Ratermann out] that now means four, five and six have to do something. Without Anne, that changes the whole game."

Junior Dani Dell'Orco paced the Bulldogs and finished second overall. Sophomore Karen Grauel finished in sixth place and sophomore Cindy Grauel finished 12th. Sophomore Debbie Boedeker and freshman Katie Hirsch rounded out the top five for Truman.

The Bulldogs brought nine runners to the meet.

"We ran better, but we did need to step up a little bit more," Cochrane said. "We're in the process. We've got to work on our things, and we realized that when we started."

Last year, the women won the Invitational by 70 points. The Bulldogs had five runners in the top 11, and all seven runners finished in the top 30.

Dell'Orco earned second place in the invitational last year as well, and Ratermann was fifth overall.

"I know coach wasn't happy with how we ran technically," Dell'Orco said. "I think some overall times improved. But as far as pack and team running, I don't think that necessarily translated well into this meet."

Cochrane said the team still is working on running as a pack this year. Boedeker was nearly one minute behind Cindy Grauel, and Hirsch finished 20 seconds behind Boedeker.

"After they get up, they have to stay up," Cochrane said. "That's the major thing they have a difficulty with. They want to rest. They have to get the mentality that you don't have to rest."

For the men, senior Adam Kell led the way for the 'Dogs with a fifth place overall finish. Junior Joey Walls ended the race in 10th place. Sophomore Chad Petrofsky and seniors Zach Chapman and Alex Phillips rounded out the top five.

The entire Bulldog roster, besides Dial, participated at the meet.

"There was a lot of improvement over a couple weeks ago," head coach Tim Schwegler said. "Our gap between three and seven was very small. That's what we want, and we have to improve from there. It gave me a lot of faith that we can be in the mix at the conference meet. I got a little more excited about the season after this meet."

Petrofsky, Chapman, Phillips and seniors John Venner and Bob Gorman were all within 14 seconds of each other. However, they were nearly one minute behind Walls and Kell. Walls finished 13 seconds behind Kell, who finished with a time of 25:15.

"If we can get three out of the five to move up a little bit, we'll be alright," Schwegler said. "Once we get Dial back full-force, we think we'll be alright."

Both teams were scheduled to run in the Border Wars Championships on Oct. 9, but the meet was canceled.

Instead, both Bulldog teams will run in the Gary Stoner Invitational Oct. 9 in Fayette, Mo. The men will run the regular 8K, but the women will be running a 5K instead of the 6K they have run during their first two meets.

Schwegler said he was not sure who would be at the invitational, but it would be a good meet to work on pack running.

"We need to be aggressive at the beginning of the race, have that back pack pushing each other," Schwegler said. "We need to get Kell and Walls a little closer together, as well."