Written and Media by Austin Brinkman [divide]
The Greenville College Men’s and Women’s Cross-Country teams both came up a little short of winning the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship this weekend. Both teams fought hard to get the win, but it was just not enough in the end.
The Women’s Cross-Country team fell short to Spalding in Saturday’s conference championships. It was the closest race in conference history in the last 20 years for the top four team finishers. Spalding complied 60 total team points to beat Greenville by one point. Westminster College compiled a total of 62 points as a team, just a few points behind was Webster University who finished with a total of 66 points.
Molly works followed up last year’s third place finish with a second place finish this year, finishing the course in a time of 23:22. Joining Works in the top ten was teammate Brooke Goodyear who placed seventh with a time of 23:39. Both of these ladies were 1st team conference this year. The women’s team also won the all-sportsmanship team award and freshman Shirley Estes won the individual award for sportsmanship.
The Greenville College Men’s Cross Country team came up a little short of winning the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship. However, the runners still came away victorious in other ways.
The Men’s Cross-Country team took second place in Saturday’s SLIAC championship meet and Spalding won their second consecutive SLIAC title. They beat Greenville by ten points. Andrew Sharp led the Panthers finishing fourth in the course with a time of 25:50. Teammate Nathan Potts and Jacob Burrell also finished in the top twelve, placing tenth and eleventh. Nathan Potts finished with a time of 26:42, and Jacob Burrell was close behind with a time of 26:57.
Potts said, “Personal victories are nice, but I’d take a team victory over a personal victory any day.” The men’s team also received a few more awards. John Mangold received the Newcomer Award and Jacob Burrell earned the Individual Award for Sportsmanship. Furthermore, the team won the All-Sportsmanship Award. Jacob Burrell mentioned, “It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice.”
Since it was going to be his last SLIAC conference, senior Ray Hingson fought hard the whole race to get his best time of the season at 27:22. Ray had a great stride at the finish and used every bit of energy in his legs to pass three Spalding runners at the finish. Hingson commented, “We shouldn’t just strive to make ourselves better, but make our team better.”
Even though neither Panthers team won the SLIAC Conference Championship, it was still a great day to race. Several members of the Greenville College Men’s and Women’s Cross Country teams set new personal bests. A large amount of Greenville College students came out to the SLIAC Conference Championship and looked like they had a great time watching and cheering on the Greenville Panthers. Clearly, win or lose, Greenville College is proud of their victorious Men and Women Cross-Country teams.
