The Northern Arizona Cross Country Teams opened their season this afternoon with commanding wins at the 42nd annual George Kyte Classic. The men finished with 15 points while the women scored 16, each having a commanding lead over their competitors.
The afternoon began with the men's race, in which the Lumberjack men took the top seven spots. Drew Bosley (1st) and Nico Young (2nd) led the pack across the finish line with times of 22:09.03 and 22:11.00 respectively. Last year's race winner Ryan Raff was not far behind, finishing third with a time of 22:24.27. Rounding out the scoring were Brodey Hasty (4th) and Theo Quax (5th) with times of 22:31.30 and 22:34.36.
Despite not contributing to the team score, juniors Santiago Gomez-Prosser and Kang Nyoak turned in times of 22:51.27 and 22:57.974 to finish sixth and seventh ahead of the rest of the pack.
The women's squad was just as dominant, placing all their runners in the top ten. Elise Stearns finished in second with a time of 15:16.4 to lead the Lumberjack women. Following right behind her was the trio of Annika Reiss (15:20.0), Bryn Morley (15:25.8), and Nikita Moore (15:36.1). Alexis Kebbe finished out the scoring on the women's side, placing seventh with a time of 15:45.4.
Also finishing in the top ten, but not contributing to the team score was Maggie Congdon (8th) and Jesselyn Bries (10th) with times of 15:45.6 and 15:50.5 respectively.
While only having seven official runners in each race, NAU also had athletes running unattached in the open division. On the men's side, newcomers Terrence Keyes (10th) and Erik Le Roux (12th) finished with times of 23:14.1 and 23:24.0 in an impressive first race. Freshman Aidan Puffer also ran unattached and finished 20th with a time of 23:36.5.
For the women, freshman Samantha Blair turned in a time of 15:58.7 to finish 11th in her first appearance while Anna Fenske finished 17th with a time of 16:25.4. Also racing were Skyler Wallace (35th), Odessa Zentz (37th), Keira Moore (48th), and Sophia Roach (79th).
NAU also had an alumni team in the race, featuring Matt Baxter, Cade Burks, Harvey Nelson, Aldo Marquez, and Beau Prince. The team scored 126 points to finish second in the open division and fourth overall. All-American Matt Baxter led the alumni with a time of 23:03.8, finishing ninth overall and second in the open division.
Original source can be found here.
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