BOWLING GREEN, KY - The Kentucky Wesleyan Men's and Women's Cross Country teams competed at the WKU Invitational on Friday, taking on an extremely difficult course.
On the women's side,
Abigail Lesniak finished the 6k course in a time of 25:47, good for 15th place in a field of 37. Not to far behind was senior
Karlee Hoffman, who came in 19th with a 26:01. The third Panther finisher was
Kate Keller, who ran a 27:56 and placed 28th. Rounding it out for the Panthers was
Abby Greene (29:34),
Maggie Jewell (30:08), and
Raffa Gano (31:02).
"On the women's side, I am pleased with how the first month of the season has been. After an injury filled beginning of the year, our focus has been putting in the work and moving forward," said Head Coach
Sol Stephens. "Our training has improved, and the results are showing. Led again by Lesniak, our split from 1-to-2-to-3 should be tighter, but we have been working throught it at practice.
Abby Greene, with everything she has dealt with, is now leading this group as captain, and going above and beyond the call of duty. We are going to train harder than they have ever trained before to prepare for conference in five weeks."
Tanner Hayes led the men with a 28th place finish, coming through with a time of 28:22. Junior
Landon Harper ran a time of 31:56, freshman
Dominic Cashion a 32:28,
Zachary Hardin a 33:20, and
Blake Lancaster a 39:53.
Coach Stephens stated "Our plan for the men all year is just to start and finish, and that is more complex than it sounds. We were led again by
Tanner Hayes, who, over the last few weeks, has shown good focus in training.
Landon Harper and
Zachary Hardin ran well today with the given conditions. We have some bumps and bruises, so we have to be smart and manageable to make sure over the next few weeks that no one gets hurt.. Over the next few weeks we will keep banging the nail with the hammer, and hopefully it goes in flush to hold the ship afloat."
Wesleyan's next meet will be in Owensboro, as they take part in the Brescia Invitational at Yellow Creek Park on Friday, October 6th.
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