LOUISVILLE, Ky.- The Central Washington University women's cross country earned third in the Division II at the 2017 Louisville Sports Commission Cross Country Classic Saturday morning, led by a fifth-place finish from junior
Alexa Shindruk.
"Not a bad day overall," CWU head coach
Kevin Adkisson said. "Alexa had a really strong finish, which was very exciting. She looked good from pretty much the first mile. She did a good job of getting out strong, which we challenged her to do in such a big race. She was near the front of the race for nearly the whole race. The rest of the ladies packed pretty close together, which was great to see. We only had about a 15-second gap from our third runner to our seventh."
"The guy's side was a little bit tougher," Adkisson continued. "Josh (Boston) was pretty sick this past week and Ron (Leaf) has been battling an injury. They both raced, but didn't really have it when it got down to the last mile. It was Corbin's (Carlton) first time leading the way for the men, which is where we think he will be for the remainder of the year. He is getting into race shape and really starting to push everyone forward. It was certainly his best race of the year on a course which turned out to be a very challenging 8k course."
The Wildcats had three runners in the top-25. Behind Shindruk, who finished the five-kilometer course in a time of 18:21.43, was freshman
Jackie Knight and sophomore
Delaney Clem. Knight earned 18th overall with a time of 19:11.68 and Clem finished in 24th with a time of 19:20.60.
Rounding out the top-five scorers for Central Washington were
Miranda Nelson and
Nicole Soleim. Nelson crossed the finish line in 19:28.93 to earn 30th, followed by Soleim in 32nd (19:31.09).
Sophomore
Brenna Carlson (35th, 19:31.96) and freshman
Kiersten Kimminau (37th, 19:35.82) also competed for the Wildcats.
Central Washington finished third out of 12 teams in the Division II section with a total of 101 team points. Grand Valley State earned first overall with a total of 53 points, followed by Ferris State with 86 points.
The men's squad was led by junior
Corbin Carlton, who finished the eight-kilometer race in 26:15.94 for 22nd place. Junior
Hanson Lee crossed the finish line in 30th place with a time of 26:29.02 and
Trevor Allen finished ten seconds later in 36th.
Tyler Humphries (43rd, 26:48.13),
Josh Boston (49th, 26:57.85) and
Ron Leaf (57th, 27:08.32) also competed for the Wildcats.
The men's team finished seventh out of eight teams with 146 points. Saginaw Valley captured first with 63 points, followed by Hillsdale in second with 64 points.
The Wildcats will travel to Bellingham, Wash. on Oct. 7 to compete at the Western Washington University Invitational.
-CWU-
