College cross-country: Record runs highlight winning day for IHCC runners

Oct. 18—OTTUMWA — If you told Brooke Miller two years ago she'd be standing out as a college athlete, she'd have figured it would have been on the softball diamond.

Running in a college cross-country race as a junior at Pekin was likely the furthest thing from Miller's mind.

"I would have told you 'no way,'" Miller joked.

Miller has gone from a successful senior rookie runner for the Panthers to one of the top athlete on the Indian Hills Community College women's cross-country team and one of the top female runners in the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference. Miller nearly broke 20 minutes for the first time in a five-kilometer race this past Friday, finishing ninth overall for the Warriors at Cedar Creek Golf Course during the rain-delayed Indian Hills Invitational meet.

"Last year, my fastest 5K was 21:25," Miller said. "I've actually been battling a little bit of an injury, so I had to sit out a week. It was up in the air if I was going to run or not. I came out here and did the best I could with what I was given."

Miller's personal-best run of 20:00.6 in the IHCC Invitational 5K earned ICCAC Athlete of the Week honors in women's cross-country. The honors also poured in for the IHCC men's cross-country team with freshman Brandon Ford completing a record run of his own on Friday producing a school-record eight-kilometer time of 23:40.9 cruising to the individual win over Warrior teammate Keveroy Venson leading the Warriors to the program's first win ever in their home meet as IHCC posted four runners in the top 10 scoring 24 points easily outpointing DMACC's runner-up total of 62.

"I wasn't sure I was going crack 24 minutes. I got to the top of the hill heading down to the finish and took a look at my watch and it said 23:03," Ford said. "Because it was downhill, I was able to catch up with a lot of pace. I just went for it. I was pretty stoked to see 23:40 on the clock when I finished.

"I'm pretty pleased with myself. You always finish and race and know you can do better, but I'm stoked with that time."

The time by Ford also set a record for any men's cross-country race run at Cedar Creek, finishing 44 seconds ahead of the previous mark set last season at Cedar Creek by Graceland junior Dillon Grover. Ford has now set IHCC men's cross-country records in both six and eight-kilometer races after opening the season posting a time of 18:25.9 in his debut race for the Warriors at the Iowa Hawkeye Invitational back on Sept. 1.

"I've got a lot of techniques. Some of them are just things like pivoting the corners, so when there are corners you make sure you get a good start," Ford said. "There's also the hills. You just have to make sure you attack them. There's quite a lot that goes into it.

"Of course, you've got your training as well. Having my training partner right there definitely helped."

Ford and Venson broke away from the rest of the pack early in Friday's race, which began over an hour later than scheduled as heavy showers moved over the course at around 4 p.m. Less then a mile into the men's race, Ford and Venson were alone pushing each other to produce two of the best times this season for any member of the seventh-ranked IHCC men's cross-country team.

"Coach (Brett Ewing) kind of told us before the race that we were the best runners in the field, so we just had to go out there and dominate," Venson said. "I just tried to stick with Brandon as long as I could. I was able to stick with him for two miles, three miles and four miles. That was a great thing for both of us."

Joining Ford and Venson in the top 10 for the Warrior men were sophomore teammates Brody Lucas and Mohammed Al-Yafaee. Lucas placed fourth overal, posting a new personal-best time of 26:16.4 while Al-Yafaee, making his IHCC cross-country debut on Friday, finished sixth in 26:20.1.

"For the past two weeks, Coach has been telling us all week we had a team that could win this meet," Venson said. "For Mo, he was kind of nervous getting ready to run the first cross-country race of his life. I went over and talked to him. There was nothing to be scared of. I told him to go out there and give it his best shot."

Rounding out the team scoring for the IHCC men was freshman Nik Davis, who finished 13th for the Warriors in a new 8K personal-best time of 26:57.8. Logan Soedt also produced a personal-best time of 27:31.5, placing 21st for Indian Hills while Keelan Aita cracked the top 30 finishing 29th in 28:04.2, also a personal-best time for the sophomore from Bennington, Kansas.

"It meant a lot to us to run this well in our home meet," Venson said. "My roommate actually told me he was going to be out here to support me. The entire track and field team came out here to support us. I'm pretty grateful. We were afraid when the rain came that we might not get this race in, but you can't control the weather. We stayed focused on going out there to give it our best shot."

Indian Hills sophomore Jacchaeus Taylor crossed the finish line in 36th place after producing a personal-best mark of 28:35, over a full minute faster than his previous eight-kilometer mark this year for the Warrior men. Amaree Hamilton produced a top-20 time for the Indian Hills women, finishing 19th in 21 minutes flat while Selket Reid-El finished 23rd for the Warrior women in 21:32.4 while former Ottumwa Bulldog runner Emily Lord finished 43rd running finishing the five-kilometer run for IHCC in 25:08.8.

"It's been very challenging. It's a lot different running here than it was running in high school," Lord said. "It's been fun. I like it. The workouts are pretty hard and having to run a six-kilometer race like we did at Iowa's meet is a little challenging. I feel like I'm getting closer to being back in shape. I'm not quite meeting the times I was running in high school, but I'm definitely getting closer."

Both the Indian Hills men and women will next run in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Region 11 Championship meet hosted on the Southwestern Community College campus on Friday, Oct. 27.

— Scott Jackson can be reached at sjackson@ottumwacourier.com. Follow him on Twitter@CourierScott.