Cross country teams wrap up with strong showing at league championship

The MVNU men’s cross country team came in seventh place out of nine teams at the Crossroads League Championships. The women’s team took third place out of the 10 teams.

The men, paced my sophomore De-Andre Steward, finished the 8K with a total time of 2:13:57.

Steward finished the race in 26:29.5, just about five seconds faster than sophomore Brennan Crawford.

Steward’s time placed him 25th out of 124 runners. Crawford clinched 27th place.

Junior Darian Pacula and sophomore Noah Menuez also broke their own personal records with times of 26:48.4 and 27:03.6, good for 41st and 45th place.

Seniors Annie Winkler and Rebekah Mullins paved the way for the ladies’ top three finish.

Winkler placed fourth in the 5K run with a time of 18:31.0, breaking her personal record set earlier this season at the Jenna Strong Fall Classic. Mullins came in just 25 seconds behind, grabbing 10th place out of 121 total runners.

Mullins is proud of the Cougars’ finish in the conference championships.

“Everyone put 100 percent into every practice and every detail that was needed for us to get to where we are now,” Mullins said.

Mullins and her teammates credit Cougars Head Coach Chip Wilson for their success.

“We couldn’t have achieved any of this without Coach’s encouragement and guidance this season,” she said.

Winkler, Mullins and freshman Brooklyn Duewel earned All-Crossroads League honors on Saturday afternoon.

Cougars Head Coach Chip Wilson credits season-long preparation for MVNU’s success in the conference championships.

“There has been an intentional focus and preparation for this race all season,” said Cougars Head Coach Chip Wilson. “I reminded our teams that we haven’t been preparing for conference just this last week; it has been a season long endeavor, and both teams responded well.”

The Lady Cougars team finished their season receiving votes, just outside of the top 25 teams.