CROSS COUNTRY

Sophomore Shelby Christman headlined the Forester cross country program Saturday morning by winning the GRCC Raider Invitational hosted Grand Rapids Community College on Calvin University’s course. She led the Forester women to a six place finish out of 21 teams. As a team, Huntington’s overall time was 1:41.41.0.

Christman’s winning time of 18:05.6 was more than 30 seconds faster than the second place finisher. Abby Mays also had a strong showing by finishing 6th out of 200 runners in 19:10.9. Emily Tedder came in next for her team in 44th place with a time of 20:54.2.

Amelia Strzechowski turned in time of 21:30.4 for 59th place. Shaylynn Reyes’ 5K time of 21:59.6 landed her 71st place. Other finishers for Johnson’s crew included Deann Fry (82nd, 22:22.2), Morgann Hart (103rd, 24:05.9), Keagan Cole (136th, 24:06.9) and Evelyn Sigler (145th, 24:57.6).

“Both our teams ran without two of their top five today, but we still competed well in a quality field,” said Lauren Davenport Johnson. “On the women’s side, we were faster at almost every position this week compared to last, with a few ladies running huge personal bet times.”

The 8K men’s field included 24 teams with HU finishing 5th with a team time of 2:14.27.1.

Three Foresters turned in top ten finishes with Reece Gibson clocking in at 25:40.6 to take fourth out of the field of 236 runners. Austin Liepe was next for Johnson’s crew in 25:5.8 while Kent Yoder made his way to the finish line in 25:53.5 for ninth place.

Jonah Lemmon navigated the course in 28:05.8 for 58th place. Jackson Robinson ran his 8K in 29:012 good for the 81st spot. Next to finish was Isaac Combs in 86th with a time of 29:11.6. Other runners for HU included  Tyler Loucks (99th, 30:20.7), Riley Brand (167th, 32:46.0), Andrew Eubank (172nd, 32:57.8) and Markis Crosbie (211th, 37:44.6).

“On the men’s side, our top three on the day worked well together through the first half of the race and competed well in the second half,” said Johnson. “The top seven all ran faster than last week with today being a more difficult course.

“Our young athletes are improving every week and we are looking to build back to full strength by our next race.”

The Foresters have a few weeks off before competing in the Lou Cross Country Classic on October 1.