Mineral Area College Running Cards

Day 7 is our last day together and our 'Graduation Celebration' day! We held a little ceremony at Dunkin' to honor our 11 athletes who missed their graduation to compete at the national meet. Thank you Jacob Arnold, Hunter Cary, Laine Cottrell, Josh Duerr, Molly Gearhart, Grayson Knernshield, Laura Maddox, Mitchell Meyer, Devin St. Clair, Cory Stoll, and Rachel Wilson for all the memories and we can't wait to see what's next in your journey!
To sum up this journey, I want to share something I posted to our personal page. The final day of the meet was probably the most emotional I have ever felt after a loss. Our Women had a goal of making it to the podium and our Men were gunning for the championship trophy. This coaches wife wanted the best outcome possible for this wonderful group of athletes AND their coach. They are an amazing, hardworking group of people and I love them all. Every day of our journey we have heard compliments. Hotel staff, resturant staff, other coaches, meet personnel and even the medical tent trainers, have all searched us out to brag on our team. I mean, how awesome is that!?! Any athlete I have ever had will tell you that Mrs. Coach Davis preached good character as a team. How you behave and what you say matters. They will also tell you that I always told them "I would rather lose with a group of winners than win with a group of losers' and I experienced that this weekend. It was a tough pill to swallow, but I still stand by it. When the agony of defeat was trying to overwhelm me, an athlete from the winning team came up to apologize for his teammate's bad behavior against one of our athletes and then I remembered that we had nothing to hang our heads about. Our team has great character and that makes them true winners in the game of life. Congratulations Cardinals! You represented Mineral Area College Athletics and very well.
We are super proud of all you have accomplished this season!

Final pictures uploaded from NJCAA website.

Additional pictures.

Well, not the exact outcome we were hoping for but the men ended the season as the National Runner Up falling to College of DuPage. Lady Cardinals, with only 10 athletes competing, finished in 5th place.
We had 4 National Champions all on the Men's side. Adding to Jacob and Hunter's honors from yesterday, we had Sie'ntez Lerma earning to top spot in the nation in the 400 Meter Run and Brad Ahrens winning the 1500 Meters. Congratulations, gentlemen!
While we say we had 4 National Event Champions, you can see from the pictures the amount of Mineral Area athletes who stood on the podium as the top 6 in the JUCO nation. And that isnt even counting the 7th and 8th place finishers who scored points. For a small school with the enrollment of around 2,000 students and basically a rural setting, competeting against schools with 25,000 students in bigger towns and even cities like Chicago, you have to be proud of what our students have accomplished!
Final outcomes for the Women today were: Laine Cottrell placing 2nd in the 400 and 8th in the 100. Emma Gerstner placed 5th in the 100. For the 200 meters, Laine got 4th and Emma 7th. Kiera Finn got the last point in the 100 Hurdles. Completing the scoring for the Women was Riley Petsch medaling 5th in the 5,000 meters.
Finishing out the Men's side, Trenton Braswell got things started with a 3rd place throw in the Shot Put and the 4x100 meter foursome of, Sie'ntez Lerma, Anthony Treadwell, Dylan Morrison, and Cory Stoll earned 2nd place. In the 100 Meter Dash, Cory Stoll finished 4th with Sie'ntez placing 8th. In the 110 High Hurdles, Hunter Cary placed 6th and Bradley Ahrens medaled 2nd in the 800 Meters. For the 200, Sie'ntez was 2nd and Cory finished 5th. In the 5,000 Jacob Arnold ran for 6th and Bradley placed 8th. Our men's 4x400 Meter Relay team of Dylan Morrison, Levi Wiegand, Toby Brown and Brad Ahrens got the final point finishing in 8th.
We enjoyed an end of season dinner celebration at Swifty's in downtown Utica. The teams presented our Bus Driver Donnie Owens with a National T-shirt in appreciation of all he does for our program, in addition to driving us around the country. Thanks Donnie!
Times to rest up for a 2-day journey back to Missouri.

Prelim Day is in the books with the majority of our team advancing to the finals on Saturday. We witnessed some stellar performances and the excitement they provided was electrifying!
ĺ⁰We had 2 National Champions, both of them defending their title from last year; Jacob Arnold won the Men's 10,000 Meters (6.2 miles) and Hunter Cary won the Decathlon! Way to go gentelmen!Freshmen Trenton Braswell ended the day with 2 All-American honors earning 2nd place in the Discus and 3rd in the Javelin. Another Freshmen thrower, Dale Probst medaled 5th in the Javelin. Anthony Treadwell and Cory Stoll placed 5th and 6th in the Long Jump, Gavin Cartwright tied for 5th in the High Jump, and Devin St. Clair got the 8th spot in the 10,000 Meters.
On the Women's side we had 3 earn All-American honors. Riley Petsch and Abi Dean finished 2nd and 3rd in the 10,000 Meters and Emma Gerstner placed 3rd in the Long Jump. Molly Gearhart earned the 7th spot in the Women's Discus and Laura Maddox medaled 5th in the 10,000 Meters.

First day of competition is in the books. Molly Gearhart started the day with a 6th place finish in women's hammer and Trenton Braswell finished in 5th in Mens Hammer. In Triple Jump, Anthony Treadwell finished in 8th place for a point and Austin Dunn medaled in 5th. For the women, MAC got their first All-American as Emma Gerstner placed 2nd in the Triple Jump. Last medal winners for the day were the Men's 4×8 team of Jacob Arnold, Levi Wiegand, Grayson Knernshield and Bradley Ahrens finishing in 5th. Hunter Cary has the lead after day 1 in the Decathlon and the Men's 4×1 relay qualified for the final on Saturday.

Day 2 was another long day on the bus. It wasn't without an unplanned adventure on the interstate though. You never expect to be driving along and your bus just loses all power, but Donnie really worked his magic and got us to the next exit, and from there, he was able to solve the problem in under an hour and we were back on the road. We stopped for a picnic lunch and sightseeing at Dunkirk Lighthouse on Lake Erie. What a beautiful spring day in Upstate New York! We completed our journey to Utica, visited Mohawk Valley Community College for the team workout, and finished the day with a team dinner at Babe's at Harbor Point.
The teams are pumped and ready for competetion tomorrow. LET'S GO CARDS!

The Mineral Area College men and women's track and field teams loaded the bus Tuesday with 29 student athletes headed to Utica, New York for a 3-day national competition. Day 1 was a long day on the bus but we made it safely to Ashland, Ohio. We'd like to thank Ashland University for the use of their facilities for a team workout. Wow! What a beautiful campus! We ended our day with great service and a wonderful dinner at The South Street Grille. We'd also like to give a shout out to store in Mooresville, Indiana for the enthusiastic welcome. They were happy we stopped in, they got us through the Subway line as quick as humanly possible, and even asked us to stop by on our return trip to let them know how we did.

At the National meet in Massachusetts this weekend, the Lady Cards started the morning off with great races. They were determined to bring home the championship trophy and went for it. After a 40 minute wait, we received the news and the paperwork...we had won the championship by 1 point. You can imagine how the ladies, their families and coach were celebrating. What a race...what an accomplishment! Meanwhile the Men's team had to run their race and we shifted our focus to them. Their race didn't go according to plan and they had to struggle to hang on and get every position they could. We knew we hadn't won and were unsure at this point if we even held on to 2nd place. As we were getting them across the finish line, we started receiving word there had been an error in the Women's scoring and now instead of winning by 1 point we were now in 2nd place by 1 point. The celebration quickly turned sour and there was nothing we could do to change the outcome. Our ladies handled it with grace and poise and made us proud. The Men then found out they had secured the runner-up position as well.

It is sad to say that your first feeling is that of defeat but after you collect your thoughts and emotions, you realize that both teams are the 2nd place teams in D3 nation. WAY TO GO CARDINALS!

We are now setting our sights on the Track and Field season!

To finish on a positive note, we had 4 of our athletes receive ALL-AMERICAN honors. Julia Boyher-7th; Riley Petsch-11th; Brad Ahrens-2nd and Devin St. Clair-14th. Congratulations on this achievement!

Region 16 Championships in Kansas City, Missouri.

The MAC Running Cardinals Women and Men's teams are both Region 16 Champions for the 4th straight year.
All-Region honors go to Brad Ahrens-1st; Devin St. Clair-2nd; and Elijah Myers-3rd for the men and Riley Petsch-2nd and Julia Boyher-3rd for the women. Congratulations! On to the National Championships in Massachusetts next weekend!

MAC CC/Track on Twitter “Race Day! The Nationally top ranked are on the road to Kansas City for the Region 16 Championships. Both teams are running for their 4th straight titles. ”

Well deserved Riley!

NJCAA Cross Country and Track & Field on Twitter “Riley Petsch of is the DIII Women's Runner of the Week! Petsch finished second in the Greenville Classic with a 19:44 mark. ”

Second time this season for Brad!

USTFCCCA on Twitter “Here are our National Athletes of the Week in DIII Cross Country for October 17, 2022! M - Brad Ahrens, W - Aja Jackson, This duo showed why they deserved national honors! https://t.co/mPUN6Smq9m”

MAC Women win the Greenville meet this evening held at the Hillsboro, Illinois Golf Course! Congratulations ladies! Many of them broke their own personal records with 6 of them placing in the awards. Way to go Lady Cards!
On the Men's side, the Cards came in 2nd behind the host school and had many PR's as well.
Next meet will be the Region 16 championships on October 28th in Kansas City, Missouri.

The running Cardinals competed this evening in the Border Wars hosted by Principia College in Elsah, Illinois. It turned out to be a wonderful evening of racing with some times and places to be proud of! Go Cards!

Congrats Bradley! Well deserved.

USTFCCCA on Twitter “Here are our DIII National Athletes of the Week for October 3, 2022! M - Brad Ahrens, W - Lilly Alberts, This duo ran tough and was rewarded with national honors! https://t.co/PLJzVw9pCE”

Running cardinals were back on the racing circuit Friday in Decatur, Illinois at a dual meet with Millikin University. Weather was perfect and times were fast. Next competition will be Friday, October 7th at Principia College in Elsah, Illinois.

MAC CC/Track on Twitter “For the first time in the 5 year history of the program, the Women's team sits on top of the National rankings for Division III Cross Country. The MAC Men's team is second behind DuPage College. Keep it up Cards! ”

Sorry for the late post. We usually send out meet info on the bus ride home but coaches were driving. Our teams had another great meet at University of Illinois at Springfield on Friday, September 9th. They are currently focusing on intense training during a two week hiatus from racing and will be back on the course September 30th at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois.

Good race results for MAC Cardinals tonight in Cape Girardeau. We butted heads with NCAA Division 1 schools and we are proud of our efforts.
Meet Results: https://linksharing.samsungcloud.com/pfiETrUc1SIj

https://twitter.com/MACRunningCards/status/1565716972540760068?t=mOyok8rLEdUvnq3KsipG3w&s=19

MAC CC/Track on Twitter “Race Day for the with competition this evening. Live results at: https://t.co/YCT6BYX6Xq Let's Go MAC!!! ”

Mineral Area College Running Cards kicked off their Cross Country season this evening in Normal, Illinois. Heartland Community College hosted the event which consisted of 2-person relays running 1 mile at a time. The women each ran 3 miles combining their times and the men ran 4 miles.

The women had 4 teams and finished with 3 of them 4 placing in the top 10 awards .

The men competed with 5 teams and placed 2 in the top 10.

Award winners for the women were 3rd-Julia Boyher and Riley Petsch; 7th-Abi Dean and Rachel Wilson; 8th-Ava Laut and Laura Maddox.

Award winners for the men were 3rd-Brad Ahrens and Devin St. Clair; 10th-Elijah Myers and Nathan St. Clair.

Great effort from the teams especially with 15 of the 19 runners competing in their first college race.

The teams will race again Friday, September 2nd at the Red Hawk Invitational in Cape Girardeau.

It's the final day of our week long trip together and we are under 3 hours from home. We had 7 of our athletes who chose to miss their graduation ceremony to be able to compete at the Nationals; Jordan Bales, Grant Shankle, Jacob Arnold, Ricardo Menjivar, Haley Hernandez, Kyle Vinyard, and Brianna Sansoucie. 🎊 Congratulations to you and best wishes from your team and coaches!
Finally, the entire track team and their coaches would like to thank our driver, Don Owens and name him the MVP of the week! Mr. Don goes above and beyond the duties of a bus driver. He spends time getting to know the athletes, he cheers them on during their events, and goes out of his way to assist the coaches. Thank you Don! You truly are the best at your craft!

On day 6 of our journey, we boarded the bus early because we had a small detour in mind. When you realize a modern day natural wonder is just 22 miles off of the interstate, and you know many of us may not pass this way again, you head to Niagra Falls! A sight to behold and another great memory as a team. Good news: one more night's stay in Ohio tonight and then this bus of weary travelers should land in Park Hills tomorrow night. Bad news: it's Finals week!

Day 5 of this journey, and the final day of competition started with a determined group of student athletes entering the stadium to make things happen. And make things happen they did. It was a day of 11 finals and every final MAC competed in, they made it to the podium except for the Men's 400 hurdle where Hunter came up lame and unable to finish.
Beginning with 1500 Meters: Haley Hernandez and Rachel Wilson finished 5th and 7th both with PR's (personal record); Kyle Vinyard and Jacob Arnold were 3rd and 4th both with PR's. 4x100 Meter Relays: Women's team of Brianna Sansoucie, Reilly Baughman, Stephany Latham & Laine Cottrell placed 2nd with a PR. Men's team of Noah Winch, Grant Shankle, Mitchell Meyer & Cory Stoll placed 6th with another PR. Women's 400 Meter runner Laine Cottrell place 2nd with another PR. After that, it was the Women's 100 Meter and Laine placed 6th. In the Men's 110 High Hurdles, we had another National Champion with Hunter Cary and a fabulous 4th place finish and big PR from Jordan Bales! Next was the Women's 800 Meters and Kara Hovick placed 7th with another PR. Discus Throw: Molly Gearhart placed 3rd for the women and Josh Duerr got a PR and placed 8th for the men. 5000 Meter Run: for the women, another National Champion, Haley Hernanndez followed by Laura Maddox placing 4th. For the men Kyle Vinyard, Jacob Arnold and Devin St. Clair placing 2nd, 3rd and 8th.
Every single point and place matters when trying to bring home a team trophy. The Cardinals had their sights set on each team winning one of the coveted top 3 places and they accomplished their goal. The Mineral Area Cardinals from Park Hills, Missouri have have brought home the silver and the bronze with the Men finishing 2nd in the Nation and the Women finishing 3rd in the Nation! Way to go Cards! You have made us proud! The teams topped off the day with a celebration dinner at the Recovery Room Sports Grill.

Day 4 of our journey and our 2nd day of competition did not go as we had hoped, although we still had some amazing performances. To begin with, Hunter Cary is now the National Champion in the Men's Decathlon. 10 events in 2 days and he ended ahead of the competition! As well as the 10 events of the Decathlon, he also found time to compete in 6 other individual events. So far, he had scored points in the Javelin yesterday, the Shot today. He didn't score in the high jump, and narrowly missed the 100 Meter finals. He did however make it to the finals in the 400 Meter Hurdles and the 110 High Hurdles set for Saturday. Grayson Knernschield and Ricardo Menjivar made it to the podium in the Steeplechase in 6th and 7th place after just taking up the event in the last couple of weeks to try to put some points on the board for MAC. Liberty Coleman found her way to the podium again today placing 7th in the Women's High Jump. Rounding out the day for the girls, Laine Cottrell made it to the finals in the 100 Meter Dash and will also compete in the 400 Meter Dash finals on Saturday as well. Rachel Wilson and Kara Hovick made it to the finals in the 800 Meter Run. As mentioned before, both men and womens' teams qualified in the 4x100 Meter Relay finals also set to be run on Saturday. Another day in the record books but the final day has yet to come. Let's see what these Cardinals can do tomorrow after they rest and recover tonight. Go Cards!

Day 3 of the New York trip ended and after the 1st day of competition, the women are in 1st place and the men are in 2nd place by 1/2 a point. National Champions, Jacob Arnold and Haley Hernandez both won the 10K earning 1st team All-American honors. 2nd team All- American honors went to our girls 4x8 team: Kara Hovick, Laura Maddox, Rachel Wilson & Haley Hernandez; Laura Maddox and Kyle Vinyard in the 10K; Liberty Coleman in pole vault. 3rd team All-American honors went to Reilly Baughman pole vault and the Men's 4x8 team of Jacob Arnold, Grayson Knernschield, Devin St.Clair and Kyle Vineyard. After the 1st 5 events of the decathlon, Hunter Cary is leading the field.
Our Men and women's 4x1 teams both qualified for the finals on Saturday and Grant Shankle and Hunter both scored points in the javelin.
Kyle Vinyard also received the USTFCCCA Central Region Track Athlete of the Year award.
Whew! What a day!

Wednesday, May 12, 2021

Tuesday 11, 2021 NJCAA Track & Field Nationals at Levelland, Texas.

Some days are just tougher than others but you never quit-shoe or no shoe! Lindenwood 4-11-21.