1997 Miracle Yearbook

The men's cross country team had a very good 1996-97 season. Members of the team, though faced with both time intensiveandphysicallydemandingtrain- ing regimens, kept up with their aca- demic studies. The team GPA was over 3.0 and one ofthe athletes maintained a 4.0throughoutthe entire season.In addi- tiontoacademiceffort,theathletesfound time to continue in personal devotions andinvestin ministryopportunities.They took advantage oftheir weekly meets by sharing the gospel with other athletes competing. The team consisted of nine members ranging from freshman recruits tojunior veterans. Going into the season,Coach Elvin King was confident in the team's abilities and their potential for improve- ment."They wereeven moredetermined and tenacious than Iknew. Wedeserved Leading the Pack Men's Cross Country to be ranked in the top 25 nationally but the raters wouldn't rank us. We had to beat 16th ranked Walsh in the MOC to have any chance to get to the NAIA nationals and we were notin thetop30at thetime. Webeatthem,werethenranked seventeenth and did run in the nationals. Each athlete contributed so much to the season that I can't point out one single athlete. They did not lose their confi- dence even though the raters didn't rec- ognize their accomplishments," he said. Of the 8 meets in which the team participated during the season,they fin- ished first or second in halfofthem,and scored highly in the other four. Eric Crawford,ajunior,was named NCCAA All-American. Coach King described his team as"consistently improving and determined." In the All-Ohio Champi- onships,the team placed14th of36. The team placed 2nd of6 in the Mid-Ohio Conference. After earning a place in the nationals,the team first placed 5th of 18 intheNCCAANationalsandthen26thof 34in the NAIA Nationals. Voicing his thoughts about theimme- diate future,Coach King remarked opti- mistically,"Iam excited aboutnextyear. We have every athlete back plus a good group of freshman recruits. We have great leadership on the team." Peter Chevere Scott Huck row 1(1-r): Scott Ruhlman,Craig Shank,Chris Merrell,Eric Crawford,Ben Thompson.row 2:Head Coach Elvin King,David Swartzentruber,David Rea,Joel Peterson,Steve McGillivray,Student Assistant Becky Woelk. 210 atfiretiei Vikk