On Sept. 14, Guilford’s cross cCountry team hosted its first-ever home meet on the Guilford campus against Fayetteville State University, winning easily with a score of 15-47.
“Guilford is blessed with a wonderful campus, with lots of space, open space, undeveloped space,” said Dave Walters, Sports Information Director/Assistant Director of Athletics. “It just makes sense that if we have the ability to benefit the cross country team with a home course, we should go ahead and pursue it.”
David Petree, the Landscaping and Grounds Manager, worked with new Head Cross Country Coach Jamie LaFollette to plan out the course. The creation of the course took a lot of time and dedication from people and it will continue to need trimming and mowing to keep the course useable.
The cost of making the course was minimal, however. The only money that went into it was paying the people involved in the creation of the course for their time, and buying fuel to run the tractors.
“I’m excited for not only hosting home meets for ourselves, but next year, the possibility of hosting invitational for big high schools because of the publicity of people running on our course, and the entry fee for the invitational,” said Jeremy Bante, senior captain of the men’s team, and managing editor of the Guilfordian. “Having a cross country course could be one of the best fundraisers the athletic department has.”
One of the things most important to LaFollette is that the runners feel motivated and proud of what they are doing. He hopes that with the creation of a home course, fans will be encouraged to come to more meets and cheer the runners on.
“Cross country is a sport that thrives on having fans there to cheer runners on,” said LaFollette. “When it comes down to running, it’s you pushing yourself and it really helps to have fans there cheering your name, or yelling ‘Go Guilford,’ ‘Go Quakers!'”
As Lafollette predicted, there were more fans there than usual when Guilford competed against Fayetteville in the 5k race last Thursday.
The top five scorers for the Guilford Men’s team were, in order, Max Karaffa, Jeremy Bante, Tyler Brown, Matt Haselton, and Marc Ramsay.
For the Guilford Women’s team, the top five scores were, in order, Charissa Duncan, Carolyn Herlehy, Laurie Henninger, Gillian Galdy, and Emily Frenzel.