Article

TMC notebook: Record week for Master’s 

Women's cross country wins first individual race

The Master’s College athletics teams tallied some big victories this week, as both the men’s and women’s soccer teams defeated visiting Fresno Pacific. But the story of the week came once again from the cross country teams.

The men’s squad set another record and looks primed to become the first Master’s athletics program to win back-to-back conference titles according to head coach Zach Schroeder. The women’s team made headlines as well, as a member of the squad did something that had never been done before in program history by winning an invitational as an individual

Cross Country

The Mustang’s men finished out the regular season with an undefeated record against conference competition with a victory at the Biola Invitational on Saturday.

Once again, it was John Gilbertson and Anthony Pizzo who led the way for the TMC as both broke the course record Gilbertson set last year. Gilbertson won the meet with a time of 24 minutes, 24 seconds, followed by Pizzo, who finished second overall with a time of 24:35.

“We see Pizzo and Gilbertson and Josiah Downer (who finished with a time of 25:32),” Schroeder said. “We see those guys racing big every weekend, week in and week out.”

Master’s won the meet with a total team time of 2:06:53. The time was an improvement of over a minute from last year’s Biola Invitational — something that bodes well for the team as they prepare to head into conference championships in two weeks.

“I would say substantially (better position than last season),” Schroeder said. “Last year we lacked the depth in our four and five spots and this year we’ve had a number of guys step up and fill spots four and five for us ... the tell-tale sign of where we finish is going to be how well or how poor our four or five guys race.”

If the men are able to secure a conference title they will become the first athletics team in Master’s College history to win back-to-back conference titles according to Schroeder.

On the women’s side, sophomore Holly Kopp won the meet with a time of 18:05 on the 5K course. The victory is the first individual meet victory in the history of the women’s program. Hannah Kellerman came in fourth overall with a time of 18:34.

“We’ve never had a girl win an invitation and Holly’s really emerged on the running scene in a big away,” Schroeder said. “Its very, very exciting for the women to be breaking new ground. For them, it’s just a mark of success, and it’s really tremendous to see Holly step up and lead the team to the way we’ve been racing. The truth is, this is really a story-book year for the women and I think a kid like Holly will be one of the kids that the school will look back and say this is a kid that really propelled athletics at The Master’s College forward and I think we’re starting to see that too.”

Overall, the women finished third overall behind first-place Westmont and second-place Biola.

Both squads will turn their attention to the GSAC Championships on Nov. 5.