Harriers impress at Jayhawk Invite

By Joey Schwindt
Sports Writer

The LCC men's and women's cross country teams competed in the Jayhawk Invitational meet in Muskegon on Saturday, Oct. 12.

It was a dominant showing for the men as they won the overall meet with a team score of just 34 points. Aquinas was the next closest team with 69 points, followed by Hope with 90 points.

For the second straight week, everyone who ran on the men’s team either ran a personal-best time or came within 30 seconds of it. The Stars had four runners finish in the top 10 at Muskegon.

“We followed up maybe one of the best performances we have ever had as a team at Louisville with an even better performance at Muskegon,” LCC Head Coach James Robinson said.

Jesse Carson and Logan Zahn took second and fourth place, respectively, for LCC with times of 25:08.69 and 25:16.03. Rounding out the top 10 from LCC were Lucas Hopkins in eighth place with a time of 25:54.98 and Ben March in ninth place with a time of 25:56.38.

“I try to go into every race with an open mind,” Hopkins said. “Since this is my first year, I am not too worried about times; I am more worried about placing and running with other guys on the team.”

On the women’s side, the Stars continued to shine with seven of runners picking up their personal- or seasonal-best times at the meet. Hillsdale won the meet for the women with 22 points, and Hope was runner-up with 70 points.

The LCC women took fourth overall in the meet out of the 13 teams in the field with 162 points, and the Stars were the top finishing NJCAA school. Daisy Speet finished fifth overall with a time of 18:16.20 in her first race back from injury.

“At first, I was worried because (the) first race back after dislocating your ankle is a little scary,” Speet said. “(Although) the ankle feels great when I run so I am happy.” 

Other top finishers for the Stars included Paige Kloha in 18th place with a time of 18:53.64 and Lily Kogut, who took 47th place with a time of 19:52.78.  

“Every single one of our women ran really well,” Robinson said. “They got out at the start, put (themselves) in a good position and just fought the whole way.” 

The string of fast performances has LCC’s coach feeling optimistic going into the final stretch of the season.

“I think we are putting ourselves in a really good position the way we are improving to do well at nationals,” Robinson said.

Stars cross country will look to carry the momentum into the Regional Championship meet on Friday, Oct. 25 at Calvin University.