SOUTH BEND, IND. – For the first time in 10 years, Grand Valley's cross country squads competed at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational.
The invitational featured 45 women's teams and 38 men's teams from across the nation, including several Top 25 Division I programs. The Lakers ran in four of six races.
The first two races, the Women's Blue 5,000m and Men's Blue 8,000m, included 22 and 19 teams, respectively.
The nine Laker ladies finished 14
th in the Blue race, outrunning seven DI programs.
Abby Olson led the Lakers in the Women's Blue 5k with a personal-best time of 16:59.2, placing 49
th out of 191 runners. The other eight Grand Valley runners also achieved new personal-best times.
The men placed eighth, finishing ahead of 11 schools including Purdue, Washington State, Cincinnati and Oklahoma.
The Lakers' top five finishers in the Men's Blue 8k all ran personal-best times.
Caleb Futter led the way, crossing the finish line 17
th at 22:58.7.
Koby Fraaza (40) and
Brock Wooderson (51) followed, finishing at 23:26.5 and 23:34.3.
Scott Spaanstra (74) and
Sam Martens (75) rounded out the top five, finishing at 23:49.3 and 23:49.9.
The Men's and Women's Open races also saw several Lakers run.
The four Laker ladies in the Open finished with personal-best times.
Madison Ebright placed first on the team with a 17.57.8 time finishing 24
th overall.
The men followed suit with all seven Lakers running their own personal-bests. Pat Lyell finished first for the Lakers and 22
nd overall with a 24:21.1 time.
"This [was] a great opportunity for our squads to get tested against some high-level competition," said Head Coach
Jerry Baltes. "It is our hope that an experience like today will help us down the road during the championship season."
The Lakers are back at it on Saturday, October 12
th for the Lewis Crossover in Romeoville, Ill.
