CROSS COUNTRY

The 12th-ranked Huntington men’s cross country team took fourth place with 156 points in the Maroon 8K race of the NAIA Great Lakes Challenge Saturday morning at Riverside Park in Grand Rapids. Today’s event is considered the largest NAIA race in the country this season.

Twenty-six schools were represented with 18 of the teams ranked or receiving votes. Rookie Haile Stutzman paced Johnson’s crew by finishing fourth out of 311 runners. He was the first freshman to cross the finish line and his time of 24:58.20 was his first time finishing under 25 minutes.

Junior Elijah Chesterman had a break-out race to run a PR 25:22.50 good for 11th place overall. Kent Yoder clocked in at 25:45.10, the day’s third fastest time of a freshman, for 27th place while Adrien Gentie navigated the course in 26:04.70 to finish 40th.

“Haile and Kent ran well and continue to be great leaders for this team despite their youth,” said Coach Johnson. “Elijah ran well too and is coming on at just the right time in the season. He was our No. 2 today with his huge new PR.”

HU’s fifth runner, Aaron Hendryx posted a 26:36.70 to claim the 156th spot. Other runners for the Foresters included Nick Childs (108th, 27:03.70), Matthew Hyter (137th, 27:25.50), Michael Cheezan (27:57.70), Kody Ahrens (28:25.70), Justin Ayers (28:34.70), Tristen Comer (28:54.10), Josiah Sovine (29:53.90), Cody Feisel (30:13.40) and Justin Edwards (31:20.90).

Taylor won the men’s race with 71 points while the other teams rounding out the top five included IWU (73), Shawnee State (121), HU (156) and Olivet Nazarene (166).

On the women’s side, the No. 16 Foresters had a frustrating day to finish 15th out of 26 teams with 420 points in the Maroon 5K race. The field consisted of 26 teams with 20 of those teams either ranked or receiving votes. Molly Mitchell was HU’s top runner with a 12th-place time of 18:44.10 out of 277 runners. Saige Norris ran to a 40th place finish in 19:22.00.

Mara McFarland posted a 19:57.50 to claim 91st place. Isabel Hunter had a notable day to finish 125th in 20:29.40 which proved her fasted 5K on record. Erin Manchess rounded out Huntington’s scoring with her 152nd place finish in 21:07.40.

Other runners for Johnson’s crew included Jessica Chojnacki (167th, 21:38.40), Lauren Craig (168th, 21:41.60), Sydney Kallem (22:09.50), Bianca Tisdale (22:12.30), Emma St. Peters (22:30.40), Meleah Ruder (23:02.90) and Hannah Richer (23:41.50).

The Foresters had to do without two of its top five runners which included top runner Hannah Stoffel who went off course. When all was said and done, Johnson opted to remove her from the team’s results to be fair to all competitors.

The top five teams for the women included Madonna claiming the title with 70 points followed by Aquinas (107), St. Francis (IL) (123), Taylor (147) and Southeastern (194).

“This race served as ‘pre-nats’ for the NAIA and sets the guy’s up for a trip to nationals,” said Johnson. “Our ladies are definitely capable of being top ten in the nation as well, but we’ll have to wait at this point to see what the rankings are on Thursday.”

Next up for Johnson and company is the Crossroads League Championships hosted by Bethel on November 9 at St. Patrick’s County Park.