Monmouth Finishes 6th and 8th in MWC Cross Country Championships

Cornell (Men) and Ripon (Women) win titles at Gibson Woods

by Nathan Baliva

MONMOUTH, Ill. (10/30/2022) — At the Midwest Conference Cross Country Championships on Saturday, the Monmouth College Fighting Scots finished sixth in the men's race and eighth in the women's race at Gibson Woods Golf Course.

William Plumley (Geneseo, Illinois) led the Monmouth men with a 24th place finish, just missing out on an All-Conference selection which goes to the top 20. The sophomore ran a time of 27:27.51.

Neo Colter (Geneseo, Illinois) finished 31st in 28:02.9, a new career high in 8K by 11 seconds. He finished three seconds ahead of Eli Newton (Dallas City, Illinois) who was 32nd in 28:05.05

Braden Bernas (Aurora, Illinois) finished 79th in 31:29.26, lunging past freshman Eli Perry (Mt. Prospect, Illinois) who took 80th in 31:29.42

Harrison Hicks (Spring Grove, Illinois) finished 84th in 32:07.02 and Brendan Jones (Mascoutah, Illinois) finished 89th in a season-best 33:57.72.

Cornell College won the men's title with 38 points. Cornell senior Aaron Davidson defended his individual title from last year in a time of 25:32.7, winning by nearly six seconds.

WOMEN FINISH 8TH

On the women;s side, each runner established a new season high and four of the five set new career highs for the 6k distance.

Lindsay Eaton (Danvers, Illinois) was 45th in 27:29.3, a new season-best by 53 seconds and a new career-best by one second.

Skylar Garey (Metamora, Illinois) finished 56th in a career-best 28:41.4. She took nearly 35 seconds off her career best from October 14.

Kailey Cronin (Elgin, Illinois) ran 31:22.8 for 73rd place, taking nearly three minutes off her career-best time.

Kari Coulter (Keithsburg, Illinois) was 84th with a career-best time of 34:51.8, nearly four-minutes under her best time of the season. Lexi Shields (Viola, Illinois) was 85th with a season-best 34:52.95, taking almost a minute off her season-best.

Ripon College won the women's race, their first ever MWC Cross Country title. Lawrence University sophomore Cristyn Oliver defended her individual title from last year with a time of 22:35.85, nearly 40 seconds ahead of the runner up.