CROSS COUNTRY

Junior Haile Stutzman headlined the NAIA Great Lakes Challenge, one of the most competitive NAIA races of the year, Saturday morning by running away from the competition to claim the individual title in 24:16, seven seconds faster than anyone else.

The Oregon native topped the field of 239 runners to guide the #11 Forester men’s cross country team to a fifth place finish out of 27 teams which proved just one point behind fourth-place Taylor.

Kent Yoder also had a stellar race to turn in a top ten finish by clocking in at 24:43 for the No. 10 spot. Elijah Chesterman ran to a 19th place finish in 24:55. Austin Liepe navigated the course in 25:32 for 42nd place while Reece Gibson rounded out the scoring for Huntington with his 82nd-place time of 26:07.

The top five scorers for HU totaled a time of 2:05:34.

Other runners for HU included Aaron Hendryx (126th, 26:38), Jonah Lemmon (140th, 27:04), Justin Edwards (222nd, 28:55), Riley Brand (237th, 31:32) and Paul Bickel (238th, 31:56).

St. Francis (Ill.) took home the men’s title with 92 points while the rest of the top ten field included St. Mary (101), IWU (113), Taylor (153), HU (154), Cornerstone (189), Shawnee State (259), Grand View (287), Olivet Nazarene (317) and Grace (340).

On the women’s side, the #19 Foresters placed ninth out of 26 teams. Shelby Christman topped Johnson’s crew with a 3:32 per K pace for an overall time of 17:38 good for third place out of 226 harriers. Sydney Lambert took 47th in 18:46. Emily Tedder came in next for Huntington in 19:16 for the 79th spot. Abby Mays made her way through the course in 19:23 for 88th place while Carmen Trier crossed the finish line two spots later in 19:27.

Other runners for the Foresters included Olivia Von Gunten (151st, 20:48), Lauren Craig (153rd, 20:53), Shaylynn Reyes (194th, 21:27), Lauren Marsh (215th, 22:26) and Morgann Hart (224th, 26:10).

St. Francis (Ill.) also claimed the women’s title with 62 points. Rounding out the top ten finishes included Cornerstone (76), Taylor (112), St. Mary (155), Aquinas (187), Olivet Nazarene (243), Grace (270), Saint Francis (286), HU (307) and Indiana Tech (315).

“Overall, I was really pleased with our performance. While both teams had very good days, we were one performance short of having great days,” said Coach Lauren Johnson. “On the men’s side, Haile ran a huge PR up front for us. Kent and Austin also ran PRs. It was great having Reece back in our line-up and Justin Edwards ran a quality race to finish under 29 minutes which was his goal this fall.

“Emily, Carmen, Lauren (Craig) and Shaylynn all ran PRs on the women’s side while Shelby was extremely competitive up front to put herself in a position to win.”

In two weeks, the Foresters host the Crossroads League Championships and Johnson is excited to see how her team fares. “Both teams will compete for one of the top spots in the league. We’re excited to run on our home course. I know we’ll be prepared to put ourselves in the best competitive position possible.”