By: Landry Long | Contributor
The Taylor men's and women's cross country teams both offered an impressive preview of what's to come in their opening races at the Indiana Wesleyan Twilight Invitational this past Friday.
The men's team took home a third-place finish behind Bethel and Indiana Wesleyan, while the women's team battled to a victory, winning the meet by seven points.
Despite the men's team struggles with sickness, the No. 11 Trojans were still able to run their fastest time in several years, with ten runners turning in lifetime PRs.
"2:11 was our overall team time and we haven't done that in a very long time. We ran 2:12 at nationals last year," said head coach Lance Vanderberg. "Overall, though, we were missing our number two runner, and we had multiple guys who were sick, so we were running kind of depleted and that impacted our team score."The No. 9 women's team entered the course returning four of their top seven runners, and were able to post several fast times. Their performance has since lifted the women's team to a No. 8 ranking.
"Across the board from seniors to freshmen we ran very well," said head coach Quinn White. "12 out of the 23 young ladies set personal bests."Junior Matt Hall and sophomore Alex Berends both took advantage of the fast course. While Hall crossed the finish line at second overall with a personal best time of 25:14, Berends clocked in at 17:50, setting not only personal and course records, but finishing just one second off of school record.
"I was pretty happy with it," said Hall. "I went out a little bit more conservatively just because it was the first race. I had been feeling a little bit of fatigue like the last two weeks from a lot of training, but after the race it gave me a lot of confidence."
Berend's first place finish on Saturday earned her the Crossroads League Female Runner-of-the-Week and the NAIA National Female Runner of the Week. This is the second time Berends has been given the national award."We had good weather, we had a flat course, so you don't want to miss an opportunity like that to PR," said Berends.
Both teams spike up again today at the Indiana Intercollegiate in Terre Haute, Indiana. Races start at 3:15 p.m.
Photograph provided by TU Sports Information Department website
