Bethel cross country tallies PRs at Carol Swenson Invite
Multiple PRs led to good results for the Thresher cross country squad in McPherson.
McPHERSON — The Bethel men’s and women’s cross country teams were invited by McPherson College to run in the Carol Swenson Invite and the results prompted positive feedback from the coach and runners.
The men took third place as they were led by a 29-second personal record of 26:47 from Luke Schmidt. Tobin Wise ran a 27:08 to finish 42nd, a 57 second personal record. Isaiah Bartel finished next for the Threshers in 51st with a time of 27:23, Marcus Fiedler finished in 52nd running a time of 27:25, Matthew Fleck finished in 79th with a time of 29:16, Daniel Kaufman finished 86th with a time of 30:36 and Robert Crager finished right after with a 30:37.
“I felt like the race went really well for the team,” said Schmidt from Newton. “We had a lot of PRs [personal records] all around and a 30-second one myself. It was a sneak peak of the work we’ve been putting in all season and we’re ready to compete at the conference meet.”
The women didn’t have enough runners to finish with a team score in the invite but ran with the three they had and had incredible results. Taryn Paulino finished 45th with a time of 21:47, and Bethany Schrag finished 31st running a time of 20:26, a 33 second personal record. They were led by Emma Graber as she finished 23rd with a time of 20:04, a 53 second personal record.
“I had a great race running a two minute personal record and felt really good after,” said Graber from Divide, Colo. “The team all improved a lot and we are excited for the conference meet next week where we can run more personal records.”
“We had a plan and a vision, and it came to fruition,” said first-year head coach Julio Martinez. “This meet gave us a good indicator of our current fitness level and things we can focus on to continue to make strides to make it all come together at Conference. The men had the fastest team average in a really long time of 27:36. I’m proud of how everyone performed.”
The Threshers will be back in action on Saturday, Oct. 21 as they participate in the NAIA Mid-States meet hosted by Southwestern College in Winfield.