September 20, 2023
Eagles Cross Country Soar in Second Meet of the Season
The men's and women's cross country teams found their footing at the NIACC Trent Smith Invitational.
Mason City, IA - It was a beautiful evening in Mason City as the Faith Cross Country teams took to the course on the NIACC campus for the Trent Smith Invitational meet. The air was cool following an earlier rain, there wasn't much wind, and there were several friends there cheering on our team.
This was the women's first 5k of the season, which was a welcome change from the 6k race the prior weekend! The top 5 women, comprised of Becca Hulinsky, Lydia Mueller, Elizabeth Beenken, Caressa Kluver, and Tina Lange ran a combined time of 2:02, which qualified them to compete as a team at the NCCAA National Meet on November 10th. Several PRs were recorded, including Becca's 8th place finish time of 21:50.
The men also ran extremely well. David Loveall just recently started running full speed after nursing an injury for most of the season thus far, and his time of 29:15 was the top place for the Faith men, which was 6 minutes faster than last week and qualified him for Nationals. Caleb Murphy also returned to action this week following an injury, and ran a 33:14 which was faster than the National qualifying time as well. Finally, the top 5 men: David Loveall, Conrad Lobb, Caleb Murphy, Max Johnston, and Daniel Subra / Andy Hackley (Daniel and Andy essentially tied) ran a combined time of 2:43, which was over 16 minutes faster than the time needed to qualify as a team for the National meet.
Everyone on the team has been working extremely hard and praising God for the talents he has blessed each of them with. We are looking forward to a meet closer to home this Saturday as we compete at the Grand View University meet held on DMACC's campus in Ankeny. Thank you all for your prayer support and encouragement for the team!
