Johnson Runs Away With Women's Race; Horton Holds Off Wintheiser

Frontrunners prevailed in the individual races at the NCAA DIII Central Region Championships on Saturday.  Both St. Scholastica's Chelsea Johnson and Central College's Eli Horton put down the challenge from the start.  Both expected challenges.  Both prevailed.

Johnson has lost only one race all year, on September 21 at the St. Olaf Invitational to St. Olaf's Noelle Olson and UMD's Briana Colbenson(a DII athlete), who were first and second at that meet, on the same course as the DIII nationals.  She couldn't match the two freshman phenoms who ran 21:34 and 21:48 to Johnson's 21:57.

Chelsea Johnson heads heading
for victory.  Photo by Gene Niemi

A week later Johnson turned the tables on Olson, winning the Griak Maroon III race with her lead from the gun style and hasn't looked back.  On Saturday, she bettered her September time on the St. Olaf course by nearly 40 seconds and was in command from the beginning.  She had anticipated a challenge from Luther's Tricia Serres, who also likes to go out hard, and Olson, but neither was able to really challenge her.

When asked if she had thought ahead to next weekend's NCAA DIII  Championships in Hanover, Indiana. "No, I guess I'll have to do some studying," she said.  It's more likely that the other women in the race will be studying her.  From the times at the other Region meets, Johnson will not be alone in the front in Indiana.  Could be a minimum of a half dozen other women able to handle her pace, but none of them with a time that indicates a single front runner for the DIII title.

But times mean less in cross country than they do in track where the "course" is pretty much the same.  Heading into Saturday's men's race St. Olaf's Grant Wintheiser would have been the favorite "on paper."  He'd beaten all of his potential challengers and was the defending champion, but Eli Horton took a chance and it paid off.  He blasted the first mile in 4:46 and shed the other members of the Central top three trio of himself, Austin O'Brien, and Cole Decker as he kept up the pace.

Eli Horton
Photo by Gene Niemi

"At about 5K I realized that he probably wasn't coming back," said Wintheiser, who had expected the trio to go out hard, but was surprised that one of them was able to hold the torrid early tempo.  Wintheiser was able to slowly reduce the gap that Horton had built up, but ended up about three seconds short of catching him.  Spent from the effort, which was the second fastest time he's run in cross country, Wintheiser laid down on his knees and elbows, head in hands, in the finish chute for a short time to recover.  The experience of having to chase down an opponent fresh in his mind.

It was good experience for the upcoming Nationals, he said.  As he may encounter a similar situation there, he's learned a bit about what not to do it faced with this kind of challenge again. Horton, who has been improving as the season has progressed, was energized by the outcome and will be hoping he can do it again next weekend.

Grant Wintheiser
Photo by Gene Niemi