Both Cross Country Teams Place Top-10 at Seminole Valley Stampede
Cedar Rapids, IA The Judson University Cross Country Teams ran very well at Seminole Stampede hosted by Mt. Mercy. The men's team finished fourth out of 20 teams, while the women finished fifth out of 16 teams.
The women's team had a top-5 runner time of 1:43:45. Kasey Moreno had a really strong showing with a 19:14 PR performance as she recaptured her form from last year. She finished 13th overall. Ella Richter (20:35.5, 44th), Eva Serrato (20:57.7, 55th), and Beth Rodriguez (21:02.2, 57th) were important to the teams' overall success. Each runner moved up very well in the last mile. This was Eva and Beth's first race fully healthy, and the team is pleased to have them back at full strength. Mckinzie Kearfott (21:55.6, 83rd) and Grace Garcia (22:04.7, 89th) both worked great together and both had PRs by 30+ second! This is also Mckinze's first 5K under 22 minutes. She finished hard and earned it at the end. Annah Dulaney (23:17.9, 110th) also big pr by 20+ seconds.
The men's top-5 finish time was 2:17.17 It was a huge race from freshman Dylan Bledsoe (26:46.1, 18th) and Chase Porsche (27:13.0, 36th). They each had 2-plus minute PRs for both. They've been showing it in practice, and came ready to run fast today. Kyle Braund (26:53.3, 22nd) dropped his PR by over 20 seconds. Carlos Miranda (27:54.2, 60th) showed that his hard work and practice paid off as he PR'd by over a minute and a half. Gage Fox was Judson's fifth runner at 28:30.9 (72nd). He made a strong move at the end to close out Judson's scoring. One more highlight for the men was Chase Ashcraft (28:58.4, 89th) as it was his first-time sub-29 minutes today.
"Both teams are starting to believe. The message all week was that we've looked too good in practice to have average results," said Head Coach Cam Knudsen. "They ran well because they have worked so hard all year, and this is the part of the season you start seeing the results. More work to do these next fou weeks though."
Judson will next race on September 22 at the Great Lakes Invite in Grand Rapids, MI.