DONALDSON, IN – The Norse Cross Country Team finished up their regular season schedule with a long trip to a conference meet hosted by Marian University's Ancilla College on Saturday. Both teams made huge strides again with nearly every runner that participated posting season personal best times.
On the men's side Brent Lagina (FR, Norway, MI) was the leader setting a pace of 34:30.6. Dustin Brewster (FR, Manistique, MI) ran well, but was just a bit off of his pace from a week ago, post a time of 34:55.2, just over a second off his mark in Wisconsin. Austin Watchorn (SO, Escanaba, MI) got himself a bit closer to his personal best set last season, putting up a time of 39:17.6.
The women returned to the typical 5K format after running a 6K a week earlier, and saw improvements all around. Unfortunately, the team was down to three runners, so could not post an overall team score, but wound up with a runner in the top 20 out of 76 total participants.
Hattie Cota (FR, Munising, MI) finished 18th with a time of 21:15.5, over 1:40 better then her personal best. Veronica Spreitzer (FR, Escanaba, MI) cut over 45 seconds off her best time, finishing the race in 23 minutes and 57.4 seconds. Leah Gould (FR, Engadine, MI) also cut over a minute off of her best time, clocking in at 24:48.7.
"It was really nice to see Hattie [Cota] represent Bay College at the awards ceremony and bring home some hardware today," said Head Coach Scott Carhoun after the meet.
The Norse will now prepare for the NJCAA Region 12 Cross Country Championships to be held on October 27 in Byron Center, MI.