Cedarville, OH — Running at less than full capacity, the Goshen College women’s cross country team took a sixth-place team finish at Saturday’s First Cedarville University Cross Country Open.
Both Michelle Miller (sophomore) and Maria Byler (sophomore) were absent for the Leafs, short-changing Goshen two of its usual top-five runners. With those subtractions, Goshen tallied 161 total points on the afternoon, leaving a gaping hole between its third-place (37th overall) and fourth-place (67th overall) runners.
“It is tough to score well as a team when you’re short-handed, and we were without two of our top five runners because of other obligations,” said Doug Yoder, Goshen head coach. “It was a very talented field, and we had several runners do very well despite taking less than our full roster.”
Junior Laura Harnish again led that pace, finishing seventh overall in a time of 19:19.22, just off her season-best clip of 18:36.19 at last week’s Indiana Intercollegiates (click here for related article). Sophomores Rachel Baker (34th overall, 21:29.37) and Tina Peters (37th, 21:44.60) flanked Harnish, but it was at that point that the absence of Miller and Byler was felt: Goshen’s fouth- and fifth-place runners in every event this season, the lack of that tandem resulted in a 30-place spread. Sophomore Renee Miller was the Leafs’ fourth athlete to finish, taking 67th place overall in a time of 24:37.83. That clip was Miller’s slowest pace of the year thus far.
“Laura Harnish ran another solid race placing seventh overall,” Yoder said. “That was impressive for a lot of reasons, one of which being that Cedarville is ranked sixth in the country right now. Rachael Baker continues to hold on to the number two slot on the team with a very good finishing mile this week.”
Junior Tessa Horst was Goshen’s final scoring piece, taking 68th place in a time of 24:39.81. The host Yellow Jackets — ranked sixth in this week’s NAIA Top 25 Poll — won the team event with just 21 total points, capturing the first, third, fourth and fifth place individual slots. Cedarville’s Lydia Wong captured medalist honors with a time of 18:39.35. For a complete view of team and individual finishes, click here.
“We had an overall good performance coming off a hard week of practice,” Yoder said. “We’ll get back to training and look forward to being at full strength for our next meet.”
Goshen will next travel to Mid-Central Conference rival Bethel College for the Bethel College Invitational on Friday. Meet time is slated to begin at 4:30 p.m.
Goshen Individual Results
Laura Harnish (7th) — 19:19.22
Rachael Baker (34th) — 21:29.37
Tina Peters (37th) — 21:44.60
Renee Miller (67th) — 24:37.83
Tessa Horst (68th) — 24:39.81
Bethany Loberg (77th) — 26:18.79
|
Sophomore Tina Peters