CROSS COUNTRY

The HU cross country program split up this weekend to compete in two different meets. The men’s team brought home the championship trophy from the Larry Young Invitational hosted by Columbia College (Mo.) while the majority of the women’s team stayed close to home to take eighth at Taylor’ Ray Bullock Invitational.

Kent Yoder headlined the weekend as the individual champion in the men’s 8K. His time of 24:57.6 was eight seconds faster than the second place finisher. The Foresters dominated the race as Austin Liepe (25:17.9) took third, Reece Gibson (25:34.4) finished fifth and Carter VanderMeer came in next for sixth place in 25:37.2. Rounding out HU’s scoring was Jonah Lemmon who claimed 23rd for Neideck’s crew in 27:00.7.

As a team, the Foresters posted a total time of 2:08.27 and scored 38 points to top the field of 14 teams. Rounding out the top five included Missouri S&T with 41 points followed by William Woods (97), Columbia (124) and Park (133).

On the women’s side, three Foresters toed the line of the 5K and finished within five spots of each other. Malarie Pinwar crossed the line third in 19:07.4, Emily Tedder came in next for fourth in 19:17.3 and Molly Harding turned in a time of 19:29.5 good for seventh place.

The majority of the women’s team stayed local to run on Taylor’s course. As a team, they finished eighth with Mackenzie Brewer leading the HU pack with her 38th place finish in 24:53.4. Deann Fry was not far back in 43rd by clocking in at 25:06.8. Shaylynn Reyes navigated the 6K course in 26:01.1 to finish 59th.

Alyeska Linsley (26:10.1) and Amelia Strzechowski (26:55.5) rounded out the Foresters’ scoring by finishing 62nd and 71st respectively.

Other finishers for Huntington included Lily Spaulding (83rd, 28:07.7), Brielle Fehlmann (84th, 28:07.7), Morgann Hart (98th, 31:24.2 98), and Evelyn Sigler (100th, 31:30.5).

Scoring-wise, HU finished with 203 points (29-33-45-50-53). Taylor took top honors as a team with 19 points followed by St. Francis (IL) (55), Grace (73), Goshen (111), Marian (141), Michigan-Dearborn (166), Spring Arbor (191) and HU (203).

Tyler Loucks (104th, 31:09.2) and Gabriel King (110th, 33:16.0) represented the Foresters in the men’s 8K at Taylor.

“Back to back weeks of racing is never easy, but our teams represented very well at both meets,” said Coach Josh Neideck. “I’m very happy with our progression and excited to have a couple of weeks off of racing to start fine tuning the needs of this group.”

The Foresters race again September 29 at the Florida State XC Invite in Tallahassee, Fla.