Members of the men and women's State Fair Community College cross country teams took part in their first National Junior College Athletics Association (NJCAA) half marathon championship on Nov. 15 in Tallahassee, Florida.
The Roadrunners had three men who ran the half marathon. Sophomore Nathan Gemechu of Sedalia covered the 13.1-mile course in 1:21:10 to finish 77th. Sophomore Logan Shaw of Warrensburg finished 92nd with a time of 1:23:08. Sophomore Ty Lewis of Carthage finished 109th with a time of 1:27:11.
Lady Roadrunners sophomore Korry Davis of Butler finished 55th with a time of 1:50:52.
"With the half marathon, an uncharted racing distance for all four of our athletes, we wanted to focus on a conservative start to the race," said SFCC Cross Country Head Coach Brad Hagedorn. "This was the second race in a four-day period, which made it even more critical to start off a bit easier. The second half of the race felt predictably hard for all of our runners, but they embraced the hurt and ran great times for their first half marathon. All in all, the Roadrunners had a fun experience and had a strong finish to a fantastic season."
David Rohrbach
SFCC Athletics