By: Landry Long | Contributor
Taylor's cross country team continued to pick up steam at Louisville this past weekend as they run deeper into their season.
The Greater Louisville Classic offers an impressive field with schools from several divisions. The men's team finished 11th overall and moved up three spots in the Men's Cross Country Coaches Top 25 Poll to 10th place, while the women's team finished fifth, moving up one place in the rankings to fifth.
With the men's team leading all NAIA schools at the meet and running its fastest time of the season, head coach Lance Vanderberg was pleased with the Trojan's effort.
"We ran our fastest team time in years and defeated the 10th ranked program in the NAIA (Indiana Tech)," said Vanderberg. "Overall, we displayed great mental toughness and ran very intelligently."
Led by junior Matt Hall, who finished 21st overall and second out of all NAIA competitors, the Trojans also saw an impressive showing from sophomore Jonathan Taylor, who ran the race back in his hometown. Taylor finished the race with a time of 26:55.71, a personal best.
The women's team saw eight season bests on the course in Louisville, and were led by sophomore Alex Berends who finished sixth out of 284 runners.
"This was a much more relaxed race for me than normal because I didn't head into it worrying about time; I was more focused on the competition than on my watch," said Berends.While the men's team is looking to defend their national ranking and sharpen their pack running Friday at Bethel, the women's team is looking to achieve some fast times and try a new strategy.
"We're actually going to experiment a little bit and try to do some things that could benefit us in the future," said head coach Quinn White. "We're going to try and hit some fast times."Both teams are in action Friday at the Bethel Invite. The meet begins at 5 p.m.
Photograph provided by TU Sports Information Department
