Cross Country Teams Start Season at Titan Opener

Women 5th, Men 6th at First Meet of 2021

by Nathan Baliva

MONMOUTH, Ill. (09/02/2021) — The Monmouth College men's and women's cross country teams started their seasons Wednesday night at Maxwell Park in Normal, Illinois at the Titan Opener. The meet was hosted by Illinois Wesleyan and both teams placed an individual in the top 10.

On the men's side in the three-mile run, senior Riley Dulin (Monmouth, Illinois) finished seventh in 15:50.45. The Scots women were paced by Arika Hofmann (Monmouth, Illinois) who finished ninth with a time of 12:24.35 in the two-mile race. As a team the women placed fifth while the men finished sixth.

Following Dulin the men's team placed two more runners in the top 50. Freshman Will Plumley (Geneseo, Illinois) finished 43rd at 16:56.64 while sophomore Neo Colter (Geneseo, Illinois) was 50th at 17:11.87.

Ezzie Baltierra-Chavez (Denver, Colorado) was right behind Hofmann in the women's race with a 12th place finish at 12:36.80. Mik Moore (Washington, Illinois) finished 27th at 13:06.19 while Kara Fisher (Monmouth, Illinois) was 30th at 13:11.85. Gabriela Peterson (Southwick, Massachusetts) and Nyasaina Kwamboka (Nairobi, Kenya) also finished in the top 50 for the Scots at 13:55.29 and 14:25.98 respectively.

The Scots next run on Saturday, Sept. 11 at Grinnell College in the Les Duke Invitational.