The Judson University Cross Country teams participated in their second meet of the year on Saturday as they headed down to central Kane County to participate in the Aurora Spartan Classic. The women's team finished seventh out of 15 total teams in the 6K race, while the men were 11th out of 19 teams in the 8k race.
The women finished with a total time of 2:15:52, which averaged out to be 27:10 per runner. Ella Richter led Judson with a 25:22.6 time to lead the Eagles with a 22nd-place individual finish. Kasey Moreno also had a top-30 individual finish with a total time of 25:53.8. Beth Rodriguez finished third on the team and 70th overall with a 27:42.3 time. Close behind was Eva Serrato with a 76th place finish with a time of 27:42.3. McKinze Kearfott and Grace Garcia were able to finish in the top 100 individual runners. Kearfott had a 28:52.4 time to finish 93rd, while Garcia had a 29:12.0 to finish 97th. Anna Dulaney finished with a 34:26.6 time to finish 142nd overall.
"The Women ran strong," said Head Coach Cam Knudsen. "Ella and Kasey both finishing top 30 is very encouraging. That was Kasey's first race back, so I was very happy with her performance. The plan for the rest of the women was to negative split the race, which they did a good job of. It was a 6k, so it was longer than their normal race. This was an important race for them against some pretty good teams, and they've will get a lot better because of it."
The men's total 8K time was 2:28.58, a 29:47 average. Kyle Braund led the way for the Eagles with a 29:14.2 time, 105th overall. Dylan Bledsoe had a 29.21.7 time to finish 110th. Gage Fox also finished under 30 minutes with a time of 29:57.9 to place 126th. Chase Porsche had a 30:06.7 time to finish 131st. Carlos Miranda had a top-150 finish with a 141st-place finish (30:18.4). Jaret Godinez and Juan Villagomez finished three seconds apart. Godinez had a 151st place finish with a time of 30:39.4. Villagomez checked into the finish line at 30:42.9, a 153rd place finish. Trevor Murray ran his race in 51:54.5 to place 248th overall.
"The men's team had a team goal of trying to negative split the second half by going out more conservative," said Knudsen. "This was our first 8k of the season. We definitely accomplished the goal, but it will be important going forward to put ourselves in the mix earlier. Carlos had a big day for us and ran awesomely to be our 5th man. They are learning though; our top 4 finishers were all freshmen or sophomores. The men are very motivated, and I expect a good race from them next week."
The Eagles run next on Friday at the Olivet Nazarene Invite.
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