Indianapolis, IN — After a season filled with personal bests and varying highlights, junior Laura Harnish was the showstopper once again for the Goshen College women’s cross country program, finishing fourth overall at Saturday’s Mid-Central Conference Championships for her second consecutive All-MCC honor.
Harnish’s time of 19:11.32 was just her fourth-best effort on the year, but the clip equated to her best result in a conference championship meet, as she finished in eighth place last year (click here for related article) and 59th place as a freshman (click here for article).
Harnish’s time and result helped a shallow Leafs’ team to a seventh-place finish overall, the program’s lowest result since the 1999 season.
“Laura Harnish again did a great job for us in placing fifth and repeating her all-conference status,” said Doug Yoder, Goshen head coach. “The course was relatively flat but deceptive in that it had narrow paths through a wooded section of the course. Laura did a good job of navigating that to post a very good time.”
Harnish, who ran three sub 19-minute times in other meets this year, may have had a chance at the league title had she duplicated her season-best effort. Harnish posted an 18:34.0 clip at last week’s Manchester College Invitational (click here for article), while Indiana Wesleyan University’s Emily LaSala captured the individual medalist trophy with an 18:33.51 clip on Saturday.
Sophomore Rachael Baker was second for the Leafs — and 18th overall — at the MCC event, registering a clip of 20:03.83 to just miss out on all-conference honors by six places.
Freshman Maria Byler moved up one slot in intra-squad results with a 52nd-place, 21:33.35 effort, while sophomore Tina Peters took home a 59th-place, 21:46.08 result. Freshman Renee Miller was Goshen’s final scoring runner, coming in at 76th place overall in a time of 22:58.56.
Goshen’s 161 team points bettered Huntington University’s 219-point and the University of St. Francis’ 239-point efforts. Indiana Wesleyan won the team event, earning just 34 total points while capturing nine of the top 15 spaces individually.
Ninety-four runners took part in the meet. The event was held on the campus of Butler University, with Marian College serving as the host school.
“Our times today were a bit slower by the efforts were still good,” Yoder said. “Rachael Baker again ran a solid race for us, and she really has come on strong this year.”
Goshen will next compete in the NAIA Region VIII Championships in two weeks. That meet — hosted jointly by Cornerstone University and Aquinas College — is slated to be held at Riverside Park in Grand Rapids, Mich. Race time for the women is scheduled for 12 p.m. on Nov. 3.
Goshen Individual Results
Laura Harnish (4th) — 19:11.32
Rachael Baker (18th) — 20:03.83
Maria Byler (52nd) — 21:33.35
Tina Peters (59th) — 21:46.08
Renee Miller (76th) — 22:58.56
Michelle Miller (88th) — 25:03.91
Laura Stoesz (89th) — 25:06.60
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Junior Laura Harnish