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SEPT.
30 — #19 Leafs Go 1, 2, 3 For Earlham Invite Title
Top
three group together for hat-trick win; Turner, Peters
solidify championship |
Richmond, IN — With 11 schools
present at Saturday’s Earlham College Invitational — including
NCAA Division I Butler University — there was little question
to which was the class of the meet, as Goshen took the top three
positions to coast to the invitational championship.
Senior Petrana Petkova was followed just seconds by juniors Laura
Herr and Laura Harnish to claim the top three finishes Saturday
morning, virtually guaranteeing the Leafs the team title. Freshman
Whitney Turner came up with a big performance as Goshen’s
fourth runner, taking nearly 30 seconds off her time at the Indiana
Intercollegiates two weeks ago (click here for article). Classmate
Tina Peters finished rounded off Goshen’s scoring five with
a 22nd-place finish in 21:17, giving the Leafs their first traditional
meet championship of the season.
The title came at an appropriate time, as the Goshen program found
itself ranked 19th in the country in last week’s NAIA women’s
cross country national rating. Posted on Sept. 27, the Earlham
Invitational was the first event for the team since being ranked
in the nation’s top 25 this year.
“We had a great outing today going one, two, three,” said
Doug Yoder, Goshen head coach. “Whitney Turner was also very
impressive turning in a 10th-place finish after not running up
to par at Intercollegiates.”
Only seven seconds separated Goshen’s top three, as Petkova
crossed the line at 19:41, Herr at 19:47 and Harnish at 19:48.
John Carroll University’s Tricia Stege was next in line,
finishing in a clip of 19:53.
“The women showed a true team effort with the top three purposely
pulling together to keep themselves in position for their finish,” Yoder
said.
With the tight finish up front, Goshen’s gap time — the
time between its first and final-scoring, fifth runner — was
just 1:36.
“Tina Peters continues to improve and put up another good
performance to be the fifth runner on our team,” Yoder said. “We’ve
had a goal to be under two minutes in our gap time, so it was very
encouraging to see that happen in addition to winning the team
event.”
That close proximity yielded a dominating performance at the meet,
as Goshen’s 38 total points was followed at distance by John
Carroll’s 68 points. The Goshen team finished in a grand
total time of 1:41:11, while John Carroll finished in 1:43:35.
By average, Goshen ran a 20:14.2 race; Carroll finishing second
in 20:43.
Though not counting toward the Leafs’ team scoring, freshman
Rachael Baker and Laura Stevens were also impressive, both breaking
the 23-minute mark as the Leafs’ sixth and seventh runners
to finish. Goshen’s depth was even apparent in the team’s
eighth and ninth positions, as senior Rachel Wigginton and sophomore
Tessa Horst finished with identical 24:12 times for 69th place
and 70th place, respectively.
Goshen’s national ranking should only improve with this result,
as the NAIA releases updated ratings every Wednesday afternoon.
The current 19th ranking is the Leafs’ first appearance in
the NAIA Top 25 since the 2003 pre-season poll, where Goshen was
rated #25.
Rose-Hulman Institute (77 points), Manchester College (100 points),
Butler University (137 points), Wittenberg University (168 points),
Anderson University (183 points), Earlham College (210 points),
Vincennes University (221 points), Bluffton University (265 points)
and Central State University (338 points) rounded off the team
scoring. Ninety-six athletes participated in the event. For a complete
list of individual and team finishes, click here.
Goshen will next take place in the annually large Benedictine University
Eagle Invitational on Friday. Women’s meet time is set to
begin at 4:30 p.m.
Goshen Individual Results
Petrana Petkova (1st) — 19:41
Laura Herr (2nd) — 19:47
Laura Harnish (3rd) — 19:48
Whitney Turner (10th) — 20:38
Tina Peters (22nd) — 21:17
Rachael Baker (31st) — 21:49
Laura Stevens (49th) — 22:59
Rachel Wigginton (69th) — 24:12
Tessa Horst (70th) — 24:12
Kassidy Cheek (72nd) — 24:25
Bethany Loberg (85th) — 25:55
Camry Hess (88th) — 26:37
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  Juniors
Laura Harnish (back) and Laura Herr
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