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Cedarville, OH — The collective depth of this year’s Goshen College men’s cross country team has become blatantly obvious this season, as Goshen has posted different combinations of its top three runners in every event thus far.
Competing at Saturday’s First Cedarville University Cross Country Open was no exception.
Senior Jake Gillette ran to a season-best 26:59.67 clip to finish 10th overall and first for the Leafs, giving Goshen a different led runner for the first time this season and helping the team to a fouth-place finish overall. Sophomore Ben Bouwman (14th place overall, 27:25.65 on Saturday) had been Goshen’s top runner in the squad’s first two intercollegiate competitions, while junior David Rumsey (31st place, 28:22.45 on Saturday) finished ahead of Gillette at last week’s Indiana Intercollegiates event.
The end result has been a mixed bag at the top for Goshen head coach Doug Yoder, an inconsistency that he says he’s happy to see.
“It shows that we are pushing each other, and it shows that we’ve got guys with some talent,” Yoder said following Saturday’s action. “To have three guys who, in all reality, could lead us on any given weekend, that’s nice. It also helps team scoring immensely.”
Goshen continued to close its gap time of its scoring runners on Saturday, with a 1:55 gap time from runners one through five and a 2:32 gap time of runners one through seven. That helped yield a 116-point, fourth-place finish on Saturday, as only host Cedarville (22 points), Taylor University (71 points) and Baldwin-Wallace College (82 points) finished ahead of the Leafs in a nine-team field.
“Our men’s team had an overall good performance after coming off a hard week at practice,” Yoder said. “Jake Gillette ran a complete race, and his 10th-place finish was very good in a solid field of competitors.”
That field was bolstered primarily by that of the hosts — Cedarville is currently ranked 23rd in the nation via the NAIA’s Top 25 Poll — as the Yellow Jackets took the top three individual places on the afternoon. Following Gillette, Bouwman and Rumsey was freshman Paul Versluis, taking 37th place overall in a season-best time of 28:49.78. Senior Nick Adkins (42nd place, 29:04.78) rounded off Goshen’s scoring five.
“First-year Paul Versluis continues to improve for us, moving into the number four position on the team today,” Yoder said. “I think we can continue to improve overall as we continue to train.”
Cedarville’s Jud Brooker took individual medalist honors on Saturday, finishing in a time of 26:07.18. Ninety-four individuals comprised the field at Cedarville. For a complete look at individual and team results at the meet, click here.
Goshen will next travel to Mid-Central Conference rival Bethel College to take part in the Bethel College Invitational on Friday. Men’s meet time is set for 5:15 p.m.
Goshen Individual Results
Jake Gillette (10th) — 26:59.67
Ben Bouwman (14th) — 27:25.65
David Rumsey (31st) — 28:22.45
Paul Versluis (37th) — 28:49.49
Nick Adkins (42nd) — 29:04.78
Nick Bouwman (46th) — 29:28.04
Dietrich Eitzen (48th) — 29:31.52
Andy Brubaker (56th) — 29:54.87
Max Wyse (63rd) — 31:05.78
Robert Hooley (65th) — 31:19.23
Ramadhan Onyango (66th) — 31:25.87
Jonathan Stuckey (75th) — 32:54.80
Mark Miller (76th) — 33:10.65
Orion Blaha (89th) — 37:48.35
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Senior Jake Gillette