Heath is named GLIAC Men's Cross Country Athlete of the Week

BAY CITY - Lake Superior State sophomore Taylor Heath (Hanover, Mich.) was named Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Men's Cross Country Athlete of the Week after placing 19th at last Saturday's Roy Griak Invitational in Minneapolis, Minn., which is the nation's largest cross country meet.

Heath ran the 8K course in 26:07, which proved to be the fastest time for all male GLIAC runners in the Division II race.

"He is running well, and he's on track to do well in the conference race," noted LSSU cross country coach Steve Eles. "I think he'll run even better. He went out a little too fast at the Griak. We'll work on controlling his pace. He ran his first mile in under 4:54, which is a little faster than what we're looking for. His 2-mile pace was where we wanted him, which means he ran the second mile a little slow. We want him to run a nice, even, smart and patient race. He could have broken 26:00, but he went out so fast because he's so fit right now. Taylor hasn't taken a day off in over three years."

Heath was the Lakers' No. 2 runner as a freshman in cross country and enjoyed a successful indoor track season in 2010-11. Eles said he struggled with nagging injuries during the outdoor track season.

"He went home and got healthy," Eles said. "He trained really hard last summer and came in in much better shape than everyone else."

Eles noted that Heath's performance at the Roy Griak is on par with other athletes, including LSSU's Katie Scott '08 and Michigan Tech's Brian Sellers, who have gone on to earn All-GLIAC or all-region honors.

"He's shooting for all-conference and maybe all-region, but he really has his eye on Academic All-America," Eles said. "He carries about a 3.5 GPA in mechanical engineering. He really does it all."