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Mishawaka, IN — It was, perhaps, only a matter of time until the overwhelming depth of the Goshen College men’s cross country team was fully utilized.
That time came Friday afternoon at the Bethel College Invitational.
Behind a historic, strength-in-numbers effort, Goshen won the team championship at Friday’s event, collecting just 32 points in bettering Mid-Central Conference rival Bethel (45 points), Robert Morris College (62 points) and league foe Grace College (97 points). The team title was the program’s first in the last 10 years, while sophomore Ben Bouwman collected his first individual honor as a collegian in a time of 27:05.30.
“Our men’s team had an outstanding outing today,” said Doug Yoder, Goshen head coach. “Winning the invitational in the manner that we did was outstanding. We are running a very tight pack at the top and with our five to eight runners, and the gap between those groups continues to close.”
Goshen finished first, second and fifth individually in the 45-man race, as senior Jake Gillette (27:23.41) and junior David Rumsey (27:35.50) backed Bouwman’s efforts. Senior Nick Adkins finished 11th in a time of 28:04.88, while the Leafs’ five through eight runners — freshman Paul Versluis, sophomore Nick Bouwman, sophomore Dietrich Eitzen and sophomore John Tamirat — captured 14th through 17th place with a gap time of just nine seconds.
Yoder’s top three runners all finished under the 28-minute mark, the top seven runners under the 29-minute plateau and the top nine under 30 minutes. It was the first time in program history that a men’s team had furnished such quality in bulk.
“Having first-, second- and fifth-place finishers was outstanding,” Yoder said. “We actually were running one, two, three for most of the race. By all accounts, this was a historic race for our program.”
For a complete look at Friday’s individual and team finishes and point breakdowns, click here.
Goshen will look to continue to improve next Friday, when the team will travel to the Benedictine University Eagle Invitational. Men’s race time is set for 4:15 p.m.
Goshen Individual Results
Ben Bouwman (1st) — 27:05.30
Jake Gillette (2nd) — 27:23.41
David Rumsey (5th) — 27:35.30
Nick Adkins (11th) — 28:04.88
Paul Versluis (14th) — 28:53.92
Nick Bouwman (15th) — 28:54.18
Dietrich Eitzen (16th) — 28:55.20
John Tamirat (17th) — 29:02.47
Randy Keener (24th) — 29:56.65
Andy Brubaker (25th) — 30:03.19
Robert Hooley (30th) — 30:35.05
Max Wyse (31st) — 30:44.85
Jonathan Stuckey (37th) — 31:48.46
Mark Miller (41st) — 32:30.76
Orion Blaha (44th) — 36:04.87
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Sophomore Ben Bouwman