Cross Country comes home with positive results from the Mid States Classic
The team looks to improve in two weeks at KCAC Championships.
WINFIELD — The Bethel cross country team took on the Mid States Classic this past Saturday, with strong individual finishes and unlikely stories on the men’s and women's side.
Running in his first cross country race, junior Daniel Kaufman from Moundridge finished with a time of 32:23.33 and finished fifth out of the team and received points for the team score. “It went pretty well, my first race went better than expected,” Kaufman said. “I enjoyed running with the team, it was a lot of fun.”
All-American Isaiah Bartel from Andover led the Bethel men with a time of 28:20.66, earning a 64th place finish. This allowed the Threshers to place above the Bethany Swedes with an overall confident finish from the individuals.
“It wasn’t the best,” sophomore Luke Schmidt from Newton said, assuring better results in the future. “Considering the circumstances, we finished and will pull together in the next one.”
Schmidt finished with a time of 29:49.99 and second for the team. He ran half of the race with his shoes off after realizing his spikes were hurting his feet. He reportedly said that he trimmed a minute off his time when his shoes were gone and said it took no time to take them off in the first place.
According to Tobin Wise, sophomore runner from Pleasant Hill, Mo., Bethel graduate Mauro Campos took his spikes off last year at this same meet in Winfield.
On the women’s side, Bethany Schrag raced to finish in 107th place with a time of 23:09.07. This finish didn’t count for a team result due to the Thresher women still having a lack of runners.
“Yesterday served as a preview for where the conference will be ran for the cross country team,” head coach Kam Blanding said. “The meet was very large and it was refreshing to be at a meet of that size again.
Warm weather and a windy day didn’t make for fast races, but the size of the races offered a great opportunity to compete hard. Our full team wasn’t able to compete but with two weeks until conference, I’m looking forward to seeing the full team back and racing.”
The team will race in two weekends at Winfield again on the same course for the conference title.