1994 Miracle Yearbook

Finishing the race,Jared Alsdorfcomes out of the woods. After the race,Laura Boothe and Heather Cornelius try to find their warms-ups. 11111111111111" 11111111Por Photo by Todd Hill Outstanding Season for the Women's Cross Country Team Season of near misses for men Cedarville's woman'scrosscountryteam put togetheranotheroutstandingseason withthesquad being ranked as high as ninth in the NAIA national poll. Coach Elvin King's unit won four team titles including the Mid-Ohio Conference championship, placed thirdoutof12schoolsattheNCCAANation- als,and was 18th of40the NAIA Nationals. The men'sprogram,ontheother hand,had a season ofnear misses. TheYellowJacketsbeganthe yearranked 20thin theNAIA pollbutfelljustoutof the rating for the rest of the season. They were denied an at-large berth to the NAIA Nationals despitefinishing 11th outof40schools atthe previ- ous year. FreshmanMichelleBursonwastheLadyJack- ets' top runner in every outing. She won three individual titles and finished in the top ten in eight races in all. Burson placed fourth at the NCCAA event to earn All-American status. Julianne Pletcher, another freshman, progressed to thenumbertwospotbyseason'send. She was also an NCCAA All-American after finish- ingseventh.JuniorsCindyHasselbringandJennifer Zenner, sophomores Laura Boothe and Heather Cornelius,as well asfreshman Jill Zenner all made significant contributions to the team's success. Burson, Zenner, Pletcher, and Boothe all madetheAll-MOCteam.BursonwastheloneJacket to gain a spoton the All-NAIA District22unit after the team finished second in the race but earned a national meet at-large bid. Jennifer Zenner also earned recognition on the NAIAand NCCAA All-American Scholar-Ath- lete teams. Honorees are juniors and seniors with cumulative grade point averages of at least 3.50. SeniorKevinConkelclosed outhiscareeron the men's team with an outstanding effort as the Yellow Jackets'top runnerin thefinalseven meets. One of his more impressive outings came at the Gettysburg Invitational in Pennsylvania where he won the meet thatfeatured 239 runners. Conkel was also an NCCAA All-American where he placed fifth out of 105 competitors. He narrowlymissedNAIAAll-Americanstatusbyfour places where hefinished 34th out of349runners. Junior Peter Simons won two invitational titles and was the team's number two runner for mostoftheseason.HefinishedninthattheNCCAA meetfor All-America honors. ConkelandSimonsbothearned spotson the All-Mid Ohio Conference team where the Yellow Jackets placed third. Conkelwasalso an All-NAIA District22performer. Several others contributed at various times by running on the varsity's top seven. That list included seniors Jared Alsdorf, Brian Miller, and John Porter,junior Chris Nickel,sophomore Jason Taylor,plusfreshmenJosh Belland Andrew Miller. *Mark Womack Photo by Todd Hill Asshe headstowards the finish line,Amy Anderson perserveres.