Simpson College’s men’s cross country team finished fourth this past weekend at the American Rivers Conference Championships, improving on last year’s fifth-place finish, while the women’s team finished eighth.
Sophomore James Johnson and senior Cole Leggett finished inside the top 20 and secured All-Conference honors. Leggett took home this honor in back-to-back seasons.
Senior Drew Engler and sophomore Ezra De Cleene finished third and fourth for the team, respectively. Juniors Doug Berg, Ben Reyes and David Lochner rounded out the top seven for the Storm.
Each member in the top seven set personal bests, which added to the 22 total runners for the Storm who set personal bests at the A-R-C Conference Championship.
For the women’s team, first year Kalia Stover clocked the fastest time for the Storm this season with a 41st overall finish and finished first on the team. First year Brylee Schechinger followed close behind to set a personal best and finished second on the team.
Senior Kate Huisinga and sophomore Ava French came in third and fourth, respectively, with first year Emma Miller, and seniors Elie Tuhn and Araceli Tapetillo rounding off the top seven. 13 Storm runners set personal bests.
Throughout the season, both teams have worked on putting themselves in the best position for the A-R-C Championships.
Head Coach Heath Moenck spoke about where his teams were at entering the conference meet..
“So far I’ve been pleased with our performances,” Moenck said. “Both teams have progressed over the course of the season and are prepared to run their best races of the season now as we enter the championship portion of the season.”
Before the meet, French, who has been the women’s team top runner in four out of the five meets leading up to the championship, talked about her expectations before the race.
“I expect that the team will run well,” French said. “We’ve trained hard all season, our goal is to run smart, stay connected in our packs, and leave everything on the course.”
Throughout the season, the team experienced many highs and lows. Leggett talked about what success looks like beyond winning.
“If we can go 28 for 28, all 28 give the best effort we can,” Leggett said. “We can get back and everybody can say to themselves, ‘we gave the best effort we could that day.’”
With regionals coming up, Johnson spoke about how the team feels heading into the meet.
“I think we’re pretty confident,” Johnson said. “If we can run really well at conference, that’s going to make us run better at regionals.”
With 35 combined personal bests from the two teams, many athletes are running their best as they head into regionals.
Stover talked about the opportunity to run in such a big and important meet.
“We are excited. It’s a big meet, but we’re ready to compete and see what we can do. I think some people are nervous, but it’s mostly excitement to be able to run and represent Simpson,” Stover said. “This is another great opportunity to just go out and do the best we can, no matter the outcome, as long as we know we did our best, there is no reason to be upset.”
The Simpson cross country team will travel to Waverly, Iowa on Nov. 15 to compete in the Midwest Regional, where they will try and punch their ticket to the national competition.
