The 25th annual Auto-Owners Insurance Spartan Invitational took place Friday afternoon, where 30 teams from across Michigan came out to compete.
After returning from Oregon on Sunday, the MSU cross country team was exhausted from the traveling and the intense meet that past, meaning the athletes looked at the Spartan Invite as more of a workout than a high-intensity meet, according to senior Leah O’Connor. Cross country head coach Walt Drenth insisted the team stay together in pacts to feel support from other teammates throughout the race.
“We came into this with some primary objectives to stay as a team—we didn’t want to break up,” Drenth said. “I wanted out front women and front men to hold back and nurture some people in the middle of our group. Our fourth through seventh people need to better than we were last week. It’s just a step forward for us and I think we did a good job. It’s hard for our top kids to stay back.”
But for sophomore Rachele Schulist, she was focusing on her running, while sporting her green and white.
“I look forward for the chance to wear the jersey. On the home course, it’s a good feeling to hear ‘Go Green’s’ and be able to run as a pack.”
The Spartan women did not let the cold temperatures affect their performance, as MSU took first and second place. O’Connor finished first with a time of 21:03 and Schulist, second with 21:05 time. Followed by junior Lindsay Clark in third place (21:19), senior Sara Kroll in fourth (21:24), sophomore Alexis Wiersma seventh (21:40), and senior Julia Otwell (21:41) and junior Katie Landwehr (21:49) in ninth and tenth place.
“Fortunately, as a pack we have been able to run near the front together. Today there were some really strong runners on the field that kept the pace from the beginning and that was really great,” O’Connor said.
On the men’s side, junior Caleb Rhynard ran in first for MSU at 24:40, placing third overall. Senior Ben Carruthers followed to the finish line with a time of 24:42, placing sixth and sophomore Nick Soter in ninth (24:46).
“I think if I would have let Caleb go right from the start, he would have had a decent chance to run away with it,” Drenth said. “We have to think about the group as a whole and if we want to be good as a team.”
“Personally I’m not very happy with [my performance],” Rhynard said. “As a team, I think we accomplished what we needed to for a majority of the time—we had our guys near the front of the race.”
With the main goal of running side by side, the Spartans succeeded as a team overall. MSU has a bye week next week, so they will compete on Sept. 27 in Minneapolis, Minn. for the Royal Griak Invitational.
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