Women’s cross country sees personal bests, men struggle to overcome injuries

The Northwestern men’s and women’s cross country teams competed in the Briar Cliff invite last Saturday. The women  finished fourth out of 14 teams and the men’s team finished 10th out of 14 teams.
An impressive seven of the Lady Raiders’ top 10 runners ran personal bests on Saturday. Senior Teresa Kerkvliet led Coach Wolf’s team for the third straight meet and finished 11th with a time of 18:39, 43 seconds faster than her previous career best.
Sophomore Dawn Gildersleeve clocked a career-best time of 19:07 and finished 22nd, while senior Allison Weeldreyer recorded a season-best time of 19:24 and finished 31st. Three additional NW runners registered personal bests: junior Amy Van Skike, freshman Amber Sandbulte and freshman Sara Edwardson.
“It was a great day to run,”  Gildersleeve said. “A lot of our girls ran personal records, which was a good confidence boost for us. We continue dropping times as a team, and I think we are where we need to be as we approach the end of the season.”
The men’s team was missing two of its top four runners due to injury.
The top six runners for NW all ran personal bests as well, led by freshman Logan Hovland and junior Jesse Baldwin. Hovland finished in 44th place with an 8K time of 26:39. Baldwin finished 47th and crossed the line in 26:41.
Freshmen Jose Martinez (51st-26:51), Skyler Giddings (60th-27:08) and Anthony Epp (80th-27:56) were also among the top Raider runners.
NW will run at the Mount Marty Invite on Oct. 22 in Yankton, S.D.