Cross country teams improve in Arkansas

The men’s and women’s cross country teams made improvements this weekend when they attended the Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival hosted by the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. The women’s team improved by five places from last year and the men’s team improved by four places. 

The top five women for CSC finished in the upper 50 percent of the standings. Rebecca Volf, junior of Wood River, led the CSC women with a time of 18 minutes and 16.1 seconds in the 5k, which earned her 12th place. Jayme Nunes, junior of Alliance, received 15th with a time of 18:23.4. 

CSC’s other top five runners were Nicky Banzhaf, sophomore of Chadron, who placed 41st with a time of 18:54.8; Callie Johnson, sophomore of Casper, Wyoming, finished in 19:16.9 earning her 59th; and Miranda Karn, junior of Holdrege, received 77th with a time of 19:32.5. Volf improved her time from last year by a minute and a half, and Nunes improved her time from last year by a minute. The women finished sixth out of 25 teams. 

The men placed 11th out of 27 teams in the 8k. Last year, the men placed 15th among 21 teams. Alejandro Garcia, junior of Pine Bluffs, Wyoming, led the team with a time of 26:00.9 and earned 36th place out of 181 participants.  Evans Koech, junior of Kenya, was the second finisher for CSC with a time of 26:06.8 and 38th place. 

The next three men in CSC’s top five were Eric Yager, freshman of Hot Springs, South Dakota, who placed 54th with a time of 26:30.6; Dylan Stansbury, junior of Crawford, in 26:32.9 and a 57th place finish; and Josef Gertner, sophomore of Fort Morgan, Colorado, received 96th place with a time of 27:20.2. 

CSC will be competing again  at 10:30 a.m., Oct. 25 at the Mount Marty Invite hosted by the Mount Marty College Lancers in Yankton, South Dakota.