WILMORE, Ky.---Blessed with a perfect day to race and empowered by a desired to honor the memory of one of Asbury's finest athletes ever, the Eagle Cross Country teams enjoyed great performances as they hosted the Chick-fil-A Justin Spoon Fiercely Faithful meet. The ladies team ran away with the team title and fifth-year super senior
Wes Preston captured the individual championship in the men's race.
The 5 Kilometer (3.1 miles) women's competition featured outstanding efforts by the Eagle team co-captains
Ava Miller and
Sarah Yost finishing second and third out of the 46 runners, separated by less than a second at the finish. Ava completed the course in a time of 21:11.6 just a step ahead of Sarah's 21:12.4. Senior Lily Anne Reinhart came in ninth for the team, followed by freshman
Emma Groff (10
th) and senior
Ella Morton (13
th) in scoring positions. Senior
Sarah Grimes finished 15
th for the Eagles, setting a new personal best for the third straight meet.
Nine different schools had participants in the ladies' race. Asbury topped the team standings with 30 points, followed by Midway University in the runner-up position with 47 points (low score wins in cross country competitions).
Wes Preston showed his experience on the rugged Asbury home course, running conservatively for the first two miles of the 8 Kilometer (5 mile) men's contest. Near the mid-point of the race he made a decisive move to go from third place into the lead an
d continued to press the pace until he had opened up a commanding 40 gap. From there to the finish line, he slowly widened the margin of victory. He completed the course in 28:05, 25 seconds ahead of rival Joshua Kocis from Midway.
Team captain
Dan Kersey struggled with abdominal pain for the first two miles of the race but regrouped to move up from well back in the pack mid-race to 10
th place at the finish. Close behind him were teammates
Josh Rittgers and
Landon Driggers in 11
th and 12th place. Seniors
Tyler Chong and
Cameron Tapp rounded out the scoring positions for the Eagles.
Macomb Community College, who traveled all the way from Michigan for the race, took the team title with 25 points. The Eagles locked down the runner-up trophy with 40 points, well ahead of third-place Midway who totaled 81. Ten schools had participants in the men's competition.
The Eagles do not compete again until the Collegiate Conference of the South Championship competition hosted by Belhaven University on November 1.
"I was so pleased with our performance today. As a fifth-year senior, Wes was actually a teammate of Justin Spoon his freshman year. Wes knows first-hand what a great runner Justin was and what an amazing person he was. For him to win this race, named for Justin, in the final home meet of his college career is really special. Also today, our ladies team showed just how tough they are. We were missing a couple of our top runners today and didn't miss a beat. If we can have everybody present and healthy in the CCS meet, we can be very good."
Randy Crist | Head Cross Country Coach
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