X-C teams excel in packs

The men and women’s cross country teams ran last Saturday at the Grand Rapids C o m m u n i t y C o l l e g e I n v i t a t i o n a l . Head coach Mark Northuis commented, “with our top runners not running this week, it allowed for a lot of our men [and women] to step up, showing the strength in our team.” The men’s team ran hard with each of the five scoring runners taking personal best times.

The team was led by junior Brett Slayton who finished the 8k at a time of 25:21, taking 24th of the 148 runners. He was followed by senior Nicholai Shaw, who ran a 25:45, the next three runners coming within a minute of him. The women’s team had another great showing with the top girls coming in all within 14 seconds of one another in the 5k race.

The pack was led by junior Breanna VanLaan who ran a 19:36, taking 34th of the 124 runners in the women’s race. She was closely followed by sophomore Jacinda Cole, senior Ellie Best, freshman Sarah Cannon and freshman Madelyn Marciniak, who all finished by the time of 19:50. The team travels Saturday to run at the Greater Louisville Invitational against a tough range of competition, looking to pack up and race hard.