X-C strong through NCAA divisions

The men’s and women’s cross country teams raced on Saturday at the Louisville Cross Country Classic, an event mixing runners from all collegiate divisions in several different races. The women’s team raced one group in the Blue Division, featuring many NCAA Division I and II teams, and a group in the Silver Division, with Div. III teams. Both groups of female runners laced second in both the Blue and the Silver Divisions. Head coach Mark Northuis commented on the team’s impressive running: “Having Emily Hamilton (’19) leading us in the Blue Division and Amanda Bentley (’19) leading us in the Silver Division, the depth of our team was shown today.”

In the Blue Division 5k race, the Flying Dutch placed second with a score of 154 points to University of Michigan, who scored 20 points for the win. Hamilton placed eighth overall, leading the Hope runners with a time of 18:09.3. Hamilton was followed by a pack of women, all within seven seconds of one another. Junior Chelsea Miskelley took 28th place with a time of 18:56, with senior Avery Lowe close behind at 18:57 for 30th place and junior Kelly Peregrine at 19:05 for 35th place. Three other runners were not far behind with junior Anna Frazee at 19:31 in 65th to complete the scoring, then freshman Julia Robleski at 19:34 and junior Rebecca Duran at 19:42.

In the Silver Division race, the women took another runner-up finish with 163 points, just nine points beind Georgia College, a Division III school. Bentley led the Flying Dutch, coming in 16th with a time of 19:42. The Hope women followed in tight packs again with the rest of the scoring runners in within nineteen seconds. Junior Sydney del Valle came in at 19:58 in 30th place, followed by senior Sarah Neumar in 34th place at 20:03, sophomore Brooke Truszkowski in 38th at 20:07 and freshman Madelyn Marciniak in 49th place at 20:17. The Flying Dutch have consistently shown their ability to run in tight packs, having the lowest spread of scoring runners of all the teams in the Silver Division at only 34 seconds.

The Blue Division runners had a spread of 1:22, a low spread among the teams competing. The men’s team raced one group of men in the Blue Division, with Coach Northuis commenting, “our team would have placed third if we were to be in the Division III race. [The Blue Division] was a lot tougher competition. Overall, it was a very strong performance by our men’s team.” The men’s team placed 31st with 740 points out of the 45 teams showing, which primarily consisted of Division II teams, giving the Flying Dutchmen a chance to run against a range of strong runners. Senior Nathan Schloff came in first of the Hope runners in the 8k, placing 58th of the 412 athletes competing with a time of 26:04.1. Next, senior Nicholai Shaw placed 136th with a time of 26:46. Junior Brett Slayton and sophomore Zackary Murphy were in at 27:09, with Slayton ahead of Murphy by .2 seconds. The team finished in the next 30 seconds with sophomore Drew Schmitz at 27:19, junior Ty Hergenreder at 27:21 and freshman Evan Bleitz at 27:33. The teams will run again this Friday at the Lansing Community College Invitational.