For the seventh time in nine years the Dordt Defender women’s cross country team claimed the GPAC Championship with a 27 point performance on Saturday morning, November 7 at Fox Run Golf Course in Yankton, South Dakota.
The Defenders were led by Taylor Anema’s individual title winning time of 18:50. Anema and teammate Eden Winslow ran neck and neck with Winslow finishing less than a second behind Anema for second place.
Jordan De Groot and Jessica Kampman were fourth and fifth in the field with times of 19:06 and 19:10 and Bethany Ten Haken claimed 15th place in a time of 19:47 to complete Dordt’s scoring. All five Dordt runners in the top-15 were accorded all-GPAC honors.
The Defenders got a strong finish all the way through their lineup with Anika Homan running 16th in 19:56 and Brenna Tolkamp was the seventh runner across for Dordt in 20:08 and finished 21st.
Dordt’s spread 1-5 was 53 seconds and the 1-7 spread was an equally impressive 1:18. All 10 of Dordt’s entrants finished in the top-34 of the 94 runner field.
Morningside claimed second place with 94 points and Northwestern was third with 95.
Anema joins Jen Kempers (2008), Michelle Steiger (2010), Annechiene Knevelbaard (2018) and Olivia Couch (2019) as individual champions for the Defenders.
Dordt has won team titles in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2020. The Defenders were runners-up in 2016 and 2019.
