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Samsons Compete in U.P. Championship
Marquette - October 12, 2009

Will Andresen brought his fledgling Cross Country team to NMU's Country Club Thursday afternoon. The course was the scene for this year's

U.P.Collegiate Championship . In addition to the GCC runners, four other colleges and open class runners competed in the final race of the season.

The GCCSamsons did very well. Dominic Beckman was the first GCC runner to cross the finish line, doing so with a time of 28:29 bettering his previos best time of 31:52. Dominic was closely follwed by teamate Kyle Pallin, who finished with a time of 29:12, 2:47 ahead of his previous best time. Mike Gering beat his previous time of 35:45 by 4:31, finishing in 31:14. Mike was closly followed by fellow Samson, Connor Drier who also showed great improvement since his last race where finished in 36:07. Connor crossed the finish line in 32:07.

 
GCC did not field a Women's team per se'. However, Kari Strand and Hannah Kangas traveled with the Samsons and competed in the Women's Open Division.

Hannah completed the 5 km race with a time of 22:16. Kari, finished with a great time of 20:29.7 which put her in 23rd place in a field of 67 contestants. Overall the day was a sucessful one for the GCC team.

Gogebic was the only Community College competing in Cross Country. The new team is coached by Will Andresen, who has been assisted by Gary Engstrom. Gary, who has been a runner for thirty five years, runs with the team each day.

We suspect that everyone is very pleased with the team's performance in it's first year. Coach Andresen will be recruiting nationwide for runners to fill out next year's team. The GCC Samsons will compete in one more event. The NJCCA National Championships on November 8th.

 
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