By Pierson VanGorp
Heading into their seventh consecutive week with a meet, the Grand Rapids Community College men’s and women’s cross country teams finished second at the Kirtland Firebird Invitational on Friday, Sept. 23 in Grayling, MI.
“We were looking forward to getting a chance to improve on our performance last week,” GRCC men’s head coach Rob Hyde said. “We set out to do even better in this meet, and as a team, we progressed tremendously.”
After placing fourth among community colleges in the prior meet, the men’s cross country team steamrolled the competition and finished second behind Lansing Community College. Although the Raiders finished second, Lansing did not run all their players and only won by two points.
Freshman Mason Kolhoff finished in third place with a time of 27:02. In his season debut All-American sophomore Coleman Clark clocked in at 28:31 which landed him at 19th. One spot behind him, sophomore Lucas Schnieder, ran a 28:36.
The women’s cross country team continued its dominance of the past two weeks, finishing in second place to Lansing Community College.They built on last week’s meet and continue to impress producing three top 10 finishers.
Sophomore Kaylee Scott continues to lead the way for the Raiders, placing second with a time of 20:46. Audrey Meyering, a redshirt sophomore, had arguably her best race of the season finishing in fifth place and scoring a time of 21:12. Lastly, sophomore Rose Meyer placed 10th with a time of 21:31. Having three top 10 finishers was enthralling for women’s head coach Sharon Becker.
“To see those three go out and perform like that was incredible and they absolutely deserve it,” Coach Becker said. “However, it is easy to forget how important all the other runners are and how well they performed on Friday.”
After making strides at the GRCC invite, both cross country teams are steadily improving as the season progresses. Both teams finished second and they continue to gear up. The next meet for the Raiders cross country program will be the Oakland Community College Invite on Friday, Sept. 30. View the schedule here.
