North Manchester, IN — For the Goshen College men’s cross country team Saturday, finishing the trip to the Manchester College Invitational was a far greater feat than finishing the actual event.

Goshen’s team bus broke down about an hour away from campus on the return home, making the team’s seventh-place finish on the Spartans’ turf the least of the team’s concerns.

“It took us awhile to get home,” said Doug Yoder, Goshen head coach. “The college had to send a fleet of cars to come and get us. That always makes for an interesting trip.”

Goshen collected 153 points on the day as a partial team took part in the race due to the institution’s fall break causing a conflict for several athletes. Even while falling behind to Mid-Central Conference rival Huntington University (130 points) just a week before the MCC Championships, Yoder said he was pleased with his team’s performance.

“Our men had a good outing with our top eight runners coming in at 30 minutes and below,” Yoder said. “On both teams we had several runners missing due to fall break commitments. We are excited about the upcoming MCC Championship meet and hope to put things together there.”

All but one runner — freshman Ben Bouwman — improved on their respective times from last week’s Benedictine University Eagle Invitational (click here for article), as junior Nick Adkins finished first for the team (and 15th overall) in a season-best clip of 26:41. Classmate Jake Gillette was next in line for the squad (28th overall in a time of 27:06) while sophomore David Rumsey took home 32nd place in a time of 27:17, over a minute better than his time last week.

Ben Bouwman had an uncharacteristic finish, taking fifth for the team (45th overall) in a time of 28:20. Junior Ramadhan Onyango was sixth for the team in a time of 28:54, while senior Sam Moyer was the seventh runner to cross the finish line for the squad, concluding the race in a time of 30 minutes flat.

“Nick Adkins, Jake Gillette and David Rumsey all ran solid races and competed well with the competiton,” Yoder said. “Nick Bouwman had a great run, slowly coming back from his early season injury. He was our fourth runner and is beginning to run the kind of times we expected from him. Ramadhan had a very good run also and is beginning to run some competitive times. It was good to see the three Bouwman brothers in our top seven.”

Goshen posted a gap time of just 1:39 from runners one through five in the 89-man event. Cornerstone University took the team title, finishing with just 49 points. The Golden Eagles’ Derek Scott won individual medalist honors, finishing in 24:21. For a complete list of team and individual performances, click here.

Goshen will next compete in the MCC Championships at Indiana Wesleyan University on Saturday. Men’s race time is slated to begin at 12:15 p.m.

Goshen Individual Results
Nick Adkins (15th) — 26:41
Jake Gillette (28th) — 27:06
David Rumsey (32nd) — 27:17
Nick Bouwman (43rd) — 28:05
Ben Bouwman (45th) — 28:20
Ramadhan Onyango (56th) — 28:54
Alex Bouwman (64th) — 29:26
Sam Moyer (70th) — 30:00
Jonathan Stuckey (77th) — 30:40
Brent Handfield (87th) — 34:07