by The Student Sports Staff
Friday, October 23rd was a very exciting day for the men’s and women’s cross country teams. The ladies started the Red Storm Classic hosted by the University of Rio Grande with a 5k. Both of the Lady Eagles, Brittany Buttery and Shiloh Jeckel, qualified for the NCCAA National Meet after running the times of 22:15, and 24:09. Buttery placed 9th which led to a podium finish where she received a trophy; Jeckel was 14th. On the men’s side, Jacob Medley and John Driskill both ran fast enough times in the 8k race to qualify for the national meet. Teammate Andrew Stidham was 40 seconds off of the qualifying time; if he runs under 34 minutes in his next race the entire men’s team will compete at the NCCAA National Meet.
A pleased Coach Brandon Arnold had this to say after the meet. “Today was a solid day for both teams. Both of our women qualified for nationals, and we had two men qualify as well. Andrew isn’t far off the qualifying time. After two weeks of hard practice, I am confident he’ll meet the required time, too. Once he does that we’ll be able to compete as a team at nationals. I couldn’t be happier with how they ran today.”
Results are as follows:
Men’s 8K
Medley 31:06-12th
Driskill 33:30-18th
Stidham 34:40-21st
Templeton 38:13 25th
Moore 40:08 26th
Women’s 5K
Buttery 22:15-9th
Jeckel 24:09-14th
The Eagle’s cross country team competes again on November 7th at Rio Grande for the KIAC Conference Tournament.