ORIGINALLY WRITTEN
The Tabor women’s cross country team placed second and the men finished fourth at the Kansas Wesleyan Invitational in Salina on Saturday.
The Bluejay women scored 64 points to 55 for first-place Friends.
Leading the Bluejays was senior Angie Jost, who finished third and covered the 5-kilometer course in 19 minutes, 21 seconds.
Freshman Heidi Schmidt was right behind Jost in fourth with a time of 19:22.
Also running for the Bluejays were Amber Wiens (11th, 20:41), Tiffany Stevens (26th-22:10) and Rebekah Lockhart (30th-22:37).
“The women really ran strong races today,” coach Karol Hunt said. “Angie, Heidi and Rebekah all ran personal-record times while Amber tied her PR.
“It was good for Angie to set a new PR, her first since her freshman season,” Hunt added. “Tiffany came back well after missing last week’s race because of illness.
“The women’s performances are a real credit to the work ethic of this group.”
The Bluejay men scored 88 points. Missouri Valley won the title with 26 points.
Kevin Larson covered the 8-kilometer course 33:22 seconds to finish 18th overall and lead his teammates for the first time in his collegiate career.
He was followed by Mike Norris (21st, 33:43), Anthony Bartlett (22nd, 33:57), Matt Lynam (23rd, 34:14) and Jeff Anenson (36th, 34:36).
“Both the 5-k and 8-k courses were redesigned this year,” Hunt said. “The 8-k winning time was 31:31, which indicated the course was most likely long-normally the first-place time is in the 26s or 27s.
“Kevin finished two minutes behind that winning time, and from that perspective, I cannot be disappointed with our times,” she added. “I think we had some gutsy races from the men today.
“We really miss Kyle (Larson, out with a leg injury), both his performance and his example.”
Coming-Tabor travels to Pomona Lake this Saturday to compete in a meet hosted by Ottawa University. The women run at 10:30 a.m. while the men begin at 11:15 a.m.
