Lipscomb cross country warms up in second home meet at Vanderbilt Classic

During Saturday’s meet, there was a 30 degrees difference in temperature from the Bisons’ last race at Vaughn’s Gap, the Belmont Opener. Two weeks ago, the men’s and women’s cross country teams were running out of clothing items to remove in the sweltering heat. Two weeks later at the Vanderbilt Classic, they were struggling to find enough to put on. At around 60 degrees, the brisk, overcast morning lengthened their warm-up some, but overall the temperature was welcomed by the participating athletes and fans alike. With nearly double the attendance from the Belmont Opener, Vaughn’s Gap was electric. “We’re thrilled with our women’s performance today. We finished 4th overall without our top three women out there, so, great performances,” head coach Bill Taylor said. Despite withholding Sally Larson, Danielle Walker and Madi Talbert from the competition the Lady Bisons showed that they still have a lot to bring to the table. The trio of runers will compete in Boston in two weeks and coach Taylor is hoping the girls will make a statement. “Maybe not visible to everybody because of not running our top three, but we’re really happy and we feel like it’s setting us up awesomely for the end of the season,” Taylor said. Lipscomb sophomore Barbara Ball finished with a time of 17:43.54. Ball, who is the current Atlantic Sun Runner of the Week, stepped up for the Lady Bisons in her teammates’ absence. “Today was great. The weather was so much better than our last race here,” Ball said. “We added a few girls which definitely helped out the pack. Our solid pack was able...

Lipscomb cross country open with great effort in heat at Belmont

300 cars lined Highway 100 at Vaughn’s Gap where the 2014 Belmont Opener took place. The sunshine was reflecting off of the bright green grass, however the striking visuals were not enough to mask the 94 degree heat that weighed heavily upon the contestants. “It was hot. Tough conditions, tough course,” said head coach Bill Taylor. After the women’s race a girl could be seen being lifted into an ambulance. Luckily, most of the contestants were able to recover quickly. Lipscomb freshman Paige Stoner enjoyed her time at her first ever college meet. “The whole thing was really exhilarating to be with so many girls, that’s so different from high school,” Stoner said. “It helped a lot to know that I have teammates that I need to push myself for.” Lipscomb sophomore Barbara Ball was excited for the team to get out and race for the first time of the new season, and to be able to put all their hard work to the test. Lipscomb held back a number of girls from racing in the meet and Kaitlyn Llewellyn, a senior at Lipscomb, mentioned that working with less people was something to get used to. “It will be nicer next week when we have more depth,” Llewellyn said, “It was pretty hot so times weren’t great, but it was a good way to start the season. It was a lot of fun.” Coach Bill Taylor said that the girls ran well, and that their effort was there. As for times, errors and protests delayed the results for the Belmont Opener. The women’s race was being reviewed due to...