By Jack Walker
Friday morning saw the Grand Rapids Community College Cross Country teams in action in the Raider-Knight invite. This was the second meet of the season for the teams, the first being two weeks ago in the Skipper’s XC Showcase, where the women’s team took home first place winning the season opener.
Women’s 5k
Coming off of a season-opening win, the women’s team was able to finish in fourth place out of nine teams this time around, finishing with a score of 122. The race came down to the finish line between Calvin College and Kalamazoo College, with Calvin barely beating Kalamazoo by a score of 36 to 37.
GRCC had four runners finish in the top 30 in the event out of 108 runners. Finishing first for the Raiders was sophomore Elicia Land, who came in 15th overall and finished with a time of 19:40.2. Following Land was sophomore Anna Tubbergen, who finished in 18th place and recorded a time of 20:00.8. Two freshmen runners followed Tubbergen, those being Gloria Gaston and Olivia Lemke, who came in 24th and 29th, respectively. Gaston finished with a time of 20:21.9 and Lemke finished the race at 20:30.1. Rounding out the top five for GRCC was sophomore Mariana Zaragoza, who finished with a time of 21:44.8.
GRCC beat all the other community colleges teams, finishing behind Calvin, Kalamazoo and Aquinas.
Men’s 8k
The men’s team finished third in the season opening event, but were only able to come in fifth this time around, ending with a score of 136. The day was dominated by Aquinas, who had all of the top nine runners, ending with the lowest score possible, 15. The Raiders were narrowly beaten by Hope College who finished with a score of 134.
The top runner of the day for GRCC was freshman Isaac Skinner, who finished 28th overall out of 104 runners. Skinner finished the race at the 27:54.3 mark and was soon followed by sophomore teammate Joseph Vanderkooi, who finished with a time of 27:55.5, giving him 30th place in the event. Freshman John DiPiazza was the third Raider to finish at the 28:40.2 mark, which placed him 42nd overall in the event. Freshman Nate Fahey came in 48th place with a final time of 28:50.0, making him the fourth Raider to finish. The fifth Raider to finish the race was sophomore Austin Winkle, who completed his race at the 29:21.4 mark.
The next race for the GRCC cross country teams will be on Friday, Sept. 20 at 1:15 p.m. in Lansing, the women’s team will look to make it two first place finishes on the year, while the men continue to seek their first win.
