The women’s cross-country team claimed their second straight Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) conference title and first sole claim in 10 years, while the men’s team edged out Hope College by one point to claim their 37th conference title.
One season removed from sharing the conference title with rival Hope College, the Knights would score a total of 29 points to lead second place Trine University by 15 points. The Knights were led by the trio of Sophie Bull, Jenna Allman, and Natalie Tebben who placed second, third and fourth respectively. Hailey Erickson and Ellia Agar finished the scoring out for the Knights with eighth and 12th place finishes.
The Knights were excited to have sole ownership of the conference title compared to having to share it. “Yeah we did not like tying it, especially with Hope,” Tebben told Chimes. “We definitely wanted to win it outright this year. That was our goal.”
The Knights battled through losing one of their top runners in the week leading up while others fought through sicknesses and toughed it out for the team. “We had Hailey Erickson run when she was sick and had a huge race for the team,” Head Coach Nicole Kramer said.
Following the women’s race the men followed suit and narrowly secured their 37th consecutive conference title. The Knights claimed a narrow 36-37 victory over second place Hope College. The Knights were led by senior Luke Witvliet who claimed the individual title with a time of 24:13.8.
“It was really fun [to win the individual title] you know, coaches, teammates and I knew that it might be in the cards for me,” Witvliet said.
After the top runners finished, there was uncertainty as to who had won the race, with many fans and athletes thinking Hope had won.
“I actually thought we had actually lost at first — I was getting ready to congratulate some Hope guys on the win,” Witvliet said.
While for the top seven runners in the conference championship the meet is about placement and trying to win, for the rest of the team it is their last race of the season to try and run a personal best. The Knights saw a flurry of season bests and personal bests at the meet and totaled 17 personal bests on the day, with 12 from the women’s team and five on the men’s side.
On the women’s side junior Mackenzie Schilthuis had a stand out performance, shaving 34 seconds off her previous best to run a 24:30.0. “Mackenzie, she’s one worth mentioning for sure, she got into the 24:00’s for the first time — and it was 24:30, so she was well in there,” Kramer told Chimes.
The two teams are looking ahead to regionals to try and continue the teams national qualifying streaks. The men’s team is looking to qualify to nationals for the 31st consecutive season, while the women look to make it 19 straight seasons. The women also look to defend its regional title from last year and secure an automatic bid to nationals. The Knights are the top ranked team in the region on the women’s side, sitting over Depauw who finished second last year after losing the tie breaker to the Knights.
The Knights will travel to Shelbyville, Indiana on Saturday Nov. 16 to race at the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) Great Lakes Region Cross-Country Championships.
