After two bye weeks following the Spartan Invitational, MSU cross country ran in Minneapolis, Minn. at the Roy Griak Invitational on Saturday. The No. 3 women’s team finished with a total of 66 points, putting them in first place, while the men had a total of 153 points, placing them at fourth.
“Being that this race was one of the more competitive meets that we run, and it’s our first chance at competition on a large scale, we wanted to go in with that mentality of seeing where we are at,” assistant coach Lisa Senakiewich said.
Sophomore Rachele Schulist ran for the Spartan women in fifth place with a 20:49 6K time. Following Schulist was senior Leah O’Connor in ninth place (21:30), junior Lindsay Clark in 12 (21:32), senior Sara Kroll in 18 (21:45), sophomore Alexis Wiersma 22nd (21:51), senior Julia Otwell 33 (22:08), and junior Katie Landweht 43 th(22:18).
“On the women’s side, (they) had a great meet, but they also know that moving forward we need a lot more there,” Senakiewich said. “It’s really positive for both teams because there is more to be improved upon and we are excited to see where that goes.”
For the men, junior Caleb Rhynard ran in at third place with a 8K time of 24:48. He led the pack by far, with senior Ben Carruthers finishing at 25th (25:33), senior Alex Wilson at 35th (25:42), sophomore Sherod Hardt at 39th (25:45), senior Ben Miller at 51st (25:55), freshman Max Benoit at 66th (26:09), and junior Andrew Cusmano at 72nd (26:12). There was a total of 31 teams competing in the men’s 8K that represented 301 runners. The men’s scoring was so close that MSU was only 11 points away from winning that invite.
“(Rhynard) went for the win and he did a really great job in trying to take the lead and staying composed with trying to take the field like that. It speaks a lot about what he is trying to accomplish and we love seeing that type of mentality,” Senakiewich said.
“The guys really fuel off the momentum knowing that one of their teammates was doing (so well). I think that they felt that connection in doing their best at the same time. We walked away from the men’s race feeling like we were in a good position,” she said.
The Spartans will compete again on Oct. 18 in Madison at the Adidas Invitational. Moving forward, head coach Walt Drenth and Senakiewich know the teams have some improvement to make if they want to make it to nationals in November.
“(The Roy Griak Invite gave) us a sense of what we need to work on, more than anything, and lets us see what things are going well,” Senakiewich said. “For both genders, we know we are at a very positive place and now we know that there is still work to do, and we are not afraid of that.”
