The IU cross-country teams will return home with two more victories after sweeping the competition Friday morning at the Meet of Champions at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, New York.
IU's women’s team scored 30 points to earn its second meet win of the season after winning a tiebreaker with Columbia. Miami University finished third with 108 points.
The men’s team scored 55 points to finish in first place. Columbia and Liberty rounded out the top three with 67 and 68 points, respectively.
“On both sides, we had a true freshman run really well,” IU Coach Ron Helmer said. “Our two leaders, Kyle Mau and Katherine Receveur, both ran really really well. I think those two things probably contributed most to what we were able to do."
The women’s team had strong performances from its five scorers as they all had top-10 finishes in the 5K. Receveur, a senior, finished first for the Hoosiers and first overall with the time of 17:30.8, 10 seconds before Columbia’s Erin Gregoire.
Senior Maggie Allen, not far behind, crossed the line with a time of 17:43.3 to take third place. This meet marked the first of the season for both seniors.
“You have to have somebody that goes out and challenges people’s best,” Helmer said. “When you do that it feels different. Their competitive spirit kind of spread to the rest of the group as well.”
Freshman Sarah Schmitt placed seventh with the time of 17:49.8 after running unattached two weeks ago in the Miami Opener. Rounding out the top-10 finishers was junior Lexa Barrott in ninth place with a time of 17:55.5 and senior Haley Harris with a time of 17:59.2 in 10th.
Harris' finish secured the win for IU, as she crossed the line two seconds faster than Columbia’s final scorer, Abigail McLaughlin.
Closing the field for the women was freshman Bailey Hertenstein, sophomore Hannah Stoffel, freshman Josey Korte and sophomore Joely Pinkston.
On the men’s side, Mau, a junior, returned for his first meet of the season and finished third in the 8K with a time of 25.06.9. Freshman Dustin Horter, with a time of 25:40.8, placed 10th in his first college meet.
IU’s next three scorers finished within seven seconds of each other.
Freshman Reese Jordan crossed the finish line in 12th place with a time of 25:44.1. Junior Bryce Miller then finished with a time of 25:48.1 in 14th place and senior Kyle Burks placed 16th with a time of 25:50.5.
Sophomore Hunter Moore, senior Joe Murphy, graduate student Kenneth Hagen, freshman Aaron Bennett and sophomore Teddy Browning closed out the field for the men’s team.
On Sept. 28, the IU cross-country teams will return to competition at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational. As part of the invitational, IU will face competition from the Big Ten Conference for the first time this season.
“We’ve got to keep training,” Helmer said. “It doesn’t do us any good to qualify for the national meet and not be able to run well, so we’ve got to keep training so we can be good in late October and into November.”
