SIOUX CENTER, Iowa — The Northwestern College men’s and women’s cross country team competed at the Holiday Inn Express Classic hosted by Dordt University.
The Northwestern women placed sixth in a field of eight teams at the event earlier this morning. The top slot went to NCAA Division II Augustana and the field of teams included three other Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) teams.
Morgan Marker (Sr., Rock Valley, Iowa/Rock Valley) paced the Raiders again this race, finishing 18th. She ran her second best time ever at 19:33 and has finished as the Raiders top runner in all four races this season.
Joining Marker inside the top-30 is Katlyn Wiese (So., Holstein, Iowa/Ridge View) who also ran well with a time of 20:01.
Lindsey Groen (Sr., Sioux Falls, S.D./Sioux Falls Christian), Julia Fehr (Fr., West Bend, Iowa/West Bend-Mallard) and Emma Haley (Fr., Orange City, Iowa/MOC-Floyd Valley) all placed inside the top-50 in a field of 105 individual runners. Tirzah Wittenberg (So., Pella, Iowa/Pella) finished 64th with a time of 21:37. Lauren Jurrens (So., George, Iowa/George-Little Rock) finished out the top six finishers for the Raiders in 75th place with a time of 22:05.
The men’s cross country team finished fourth out of nine teams behind a personal best performance by senior Levi Cross (Des Moines, Iowa/Iowa Christian Academy).
Cross paced the Raiders with a time of 25:41 good for a fourth place finish. Head coach Scott Bahrke mentioned about the performance, “Leviticus Cross ran a fantastic race. He made a move at the 4K mark as the group he was with was slowing down. He was in around 10th place at that point and moved up to 4th place and never looked back. He was looking strong at 5K and maintained his position the final lap of the race.” Cross’ time is good for a new personal best and puts him 15th on the Northwestern Cross Country Best Marks list.
Ian Wiersma (Sr., Zeeland, Mich./Zeeland East) and Dawson Jacobsma (Sr., Sheldon, Iowa/Sheldon) both finished in the top 35 with times of 27:12 and 27:16 respectively. Peyton Brasser (Sr., Paulina, Iowa/South O’Brien) ran a time of 27:53 good for 46th and Isaiah Lee (Sr., Sioux Falls, S.D./Roosevelt) finished just behind him in 48th with a time of 27:54. Alex Nonhof (Jr., Orange City, Iowa/Unity Christian) rounded out the Raider’s top six with a 56th place finish with a time of 28:14.
The field of teams at today’s competition included four other Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) teams along with two NCAA Division II teams in the University of Sioux Falls and Wayne State University.
