LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Warrior Cross Country had a busy Saturday with a pair of meets across the country. A group of LC State runners made the trip to Louisville, Ky., for the Louisville Classic, while another squad traveled to Walla Walla, Wash., for the Whitman Invitational.
LOUISVILLE CLASSIC – RESULTS
Warrior Cross Country saw new leaders emerge in Louisville with Brycen Brown and Chloe Overberg leading the way in their respective races. Both fields surpassed 300 runners, with the men at more than 400, in the largest meet the Warriors will see in the regular season.
Brown’s 35th-place mark (25:26.7) was the best finish by a Warrior on the day and helped the men place 22nd as a team in the 8k. Carter Gordon was the second LC State runner in the top 100 in 88th (26:05.4). Connor Alexander (26:28.9) and Clay Shumaker (26:30.0) finished 144th and 146th, respectively, and Brycen Kempton crossed the line 173rd (26:41.8).
“Brycen Brown ran really well for the men and really held his own,” Head Coach Mike Collins said. “He’s looking very good at this point in time. We are definitely going to have to step it up with the rest of the men’s team if we want to have a shot at a good showing at conference as well as earning our berth to nationals.”
Conner May placed 225th (27:01.9) and Cooper Carlson was 240th (27:13.6). Kobe Wessels finished 270th (27:30.7) and freshmen Keith Uitdewilligen was 390th (29:09.5).
The Warrior women finished 25th behind Overberg’s 62nd-place finish (19:07.8) in the 5k. Brooklyn Shell finished 113th (19:32.2) and Geraldin Correa was just behind her in 115th (19:33.3). Grace Tiegs also placed in the top 200 at 129 (19:39.1) and Grace Dixon rounded out LC’s top five in 239th (20:38.5).
“On the women’s side I thought we did reasonably well,” Collins continued. “Our top four girls raced within reach of where we might have expected, just too big of a gap from there and that’s really where the key to racing is when it comes to scoring points so we’ve just got to get better.”
Abigail Gorton crossed the line in 266th (20:55.6) and Emma Peltier was 270th (20:59.6). Grace McCormick finished 303rd (21:19.7).
WHITMAN INVITATIONAL – RESULTS
The Warriors had multiple personal-bests in Walla Walla at the Whitman Invitational, including men’s leader Alexander Fry. The sophomore placed 56th with at time of 26:59.3 to help put the Warriors in seventh in the 8k. Griffen Parsells placed 62nd (27:32.5) in his first race of the season, and Jacob Adams ran a PR of 27:45.8 to place 64th. Freshman Liam Page finished 69th (28:12.4) and Luke Sellmann was 83rd (29:45.9).
On the women’s side, freshman Aubree Williams led the way in her first collegiate finish in 13th (23:42.5). She helped the Warrior women place fifth in the 6k, with Kristen Thomas not far behind in 24th with a personal-best time of 25:08.5. Senior Abigail Peightal placed 29th (25:43.2), Madison Howe was 38th (27:01.4) and Haileyann Johnson was 39th (27:09.3).
“I’ve seen results from the race and I am very proud of those kids,” Collins said. “I think that the are in a position that in two weeks at our home meet they are going to be challenging the rest of our group to earn their spots and the right to run at the conference championships.”
UP NEXT
The Warriors host the LC State Invitational on Oct. 14 at the LC State Cross Country Trail in the Lewiston Orchards.
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