North Manchester, IN — With the Mid-Central Conference Championships just a week away, the Goshen College women’s cross country team used Saturday’s Manchester College Invitational as its final tune-up, finishing sixth out of a total nine teams in attendance.
A flat and fast Spartans’ course led to several season-best efforts from the squad, a trend highlighted by junior Laura Harnish’s second-place clip of 18:34.0.
Harnish — whose previous season-best time of 18:36.19 occurred at the Indiana Intercollegiates on Sept. 14 (click here for related article) — fell behind only to St. Mary’s College Megan Gray, who won Saturday’s event in a time of 18:26.0.
It was the second consecutive week that Harnish was narrowly edged by Gray, as the Belles’ top runner took individual honors at the Benedictine University Eagle Invitational last week (click here for article).
“We had a good outing overall on Saturday as most of the team had personal-best times even after a very hard week of training,” said Doug Yoder, Goshen head coach. “Laura finished second for the second week in a row behind St. Mary’s Megan Gray. This time Laura gave her all she could handle and only fell behind in the last 200 meters.”
Gray’s clip was just five seconds off the course record, while Harnish set her season-best time just seven days before next week’s league championships.
“Laura is running at her best at the precisely right time,” Yoder said.
Complementing Harnish’s efforts was another outstanding race from sophomore Rachael Baker, who finished seventh overall in a time of 19:22.0, her first sub 20-minute effort of the season. Classmate Tina Peters finished 42nd overall in a time of 21:07.0, while freshman Maria Byler — who missed last week’s event — took home a 58th-place result in a time of 22:01.0.
Freshman Michelle Miller rounded off the Leafs’ scoring runners, taking 73rd place overall in a 22:53.0 clip.
“Rachael Baker had an outstanding run breaking the 20 minute barrier and taking seventh place,” Yoder said. “She continues to improve and will be a factor at the upcoming MCC meet. Tina Peters likewise showed improvement over the last several weeks and will continue to progress the rest of the season. With Maria and Michelle coming on strong, we should have a chance to have a fairly competitive scoring group next week.”
Goshen collected 141 points en route to its sixth-place finish. The effort bettered Defiance College (202 points), MCC rival University of St. Francis (209 points) and Holy Cross College, which did not have enough runners finish to warrant a team score.
Cornerstone University — ranked 21st in the nation in the latest NAIA Top 25 Poll — won the team competition, charting just 59 points. The Golden Eagles’ top five runners all finished within the top 16 athletes at the event. For a complete list of team and individual results, click here.
Goshen will now peel back its training efforts in hopes of the best possible finish at Saturday’s MCC Championships, slated to take place on the campus of Butler University in Indianapolis (Marian College is the designated host school). Race time for women is set for 11:45 a.m.
Goshen Individual Results
Laura Harnish (2nd) — 18:34.0
Rachael Baker (7th) — 19:22.0
Tina Peters (42nd) — 21:07.0
Maria Byler (58th) — 22:01.0
Michelle Miller (73rd) — 22:53.0
Renee Miller (74th) — 22:54.0
Tessa Horst (79th) — 23:23.0
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Freshman Maria Byler