Both the men’s and women’s cross country teams competed at the Roy Griak Invitational in Minnesota last Saturday.
The course is known as a tougher one, but it is a fan favorite nonetheless. The women’s race was 1000 meters longer than the usual distance that they compete at, but they still battled well. The lady Raiders were led by sophomore Sarah Lunn, who has been very consistent every meet. Lunn finished 72nd overall out of a field of 371 competitors. Sophomore Katie Bosch, freshman Alicia Darling, senior Jessica Sawatzky, sophomore Krista Hovland, senior Alissa Gilbaugh and sophomore Sam Sinclair all rounded out the top seven finishers on the team.
On the men’s side, the Red Raiders finished 21st as a team against a tough field and course to accentuate the matter. Sophomore Ryan Bauermeister was the first runner to finish for the men with a time of 28:04. Not too far from him was sophomore Hans Epp, sophomore Peter Smith and senior Caleb VanderBaan. Sophomore Tim Rose, sophomore Tanner Goetsch and senior Elliott Johnson also finished in the top seven for the men.
“We didn’t have the results we expected, but we have confidence in the fact that we were closing hard on the other teams,” VanderBaan said. “We know that there were some tactical errors we encountered, but we are going to work on them for next week.”
The men used the meet as a learning experience and are shifting their focus to the next meet that they have.
Next week, both the men and women head to Briar Cliff to take on quite a few conference teams. This is a pivotal meet for the Red Raiders to see how they stack up to the rest of the conference.
