Yuhnke Qualifies for Nationals, Team Preps for National Meet

Saturday 10/31 marked the day of the final meet of the regular season for the Faith Cross Country Team.  The meet was held in Joplin, MO at Ozark Christian College.  The rain from the night before had slowed to a fine mist by the time the race got underway, and made for good running conditions.  The running surface was firm despite the wet conditions since it was an out-and-back course on a crushed gravel trail.

 

One of the main goals for the meet was to give Senior Laura Beth Yuhnke one more chance to qualify for Nationals as the rest of the team had already met the qualifying time earlier in the season.  Laura Beth had started nine weeks ago at the first meet of the season at a pace that was more than 3 minutes off the national qualifying time.  During the past two months, she has worked hard along with the rest of the team and ran the OCC meet this past weekend 55 seconds faster than the national qualifying mark!  That is an improvement of four minutes, more than a minute per mile faster, for the 5K distance!

 

We were all excited to pray together after the race and give God the glory for the talents and abilities He has blessed each one with!  The top three men and top three women each received medals, and the Faith team brought home a gold, a silver, and a bronze medal.  Freshman Wendy Busenitz led the way for the women, receiving a gold medal, with a time of 20:12 (her best of the season by more than 20 seconds).  Sophomore Dewey Rapson was feeling under the weather, but still ran a season best 30:55, receiving the silver medal for the men.  Laura Beth completed the 5K race in a time of 23:35, and received the Bronze medal for the women.  Freshman Corbin Evans was also not feeling well and has been running on an injured foot for the past several weeks, but still finished strong, coming in fourth in the men's 8K race with a time of 36:08.

 

Thank you for praying for us throughout the season, and please continue to pray for healing and rest for our bodies over the next two weeks as we prepare for the national meet!  We also covet your prayers on Thursday 11/12 as we drive 14 hours to Houghton, NY for Nationals...please pray specifically for alertness for Coach while driving out and back, and for strength and endurance for the team during the race.