Rachel Essner
Contributing Writer
After waiting for more than a year to compete, the Murray State men’s and women’s cross country teams kicked off their 2021 season opener on Sunday, Jan. 24, at Belmont University.
The meet consisted of 12 teams, including Belmont University, Austin Peay State University, Tennessee Tech University, Tennessee State University and Lipscomb University.
Junior Dani Wright, with a time of 18:20.257, and sophomores Kristin Dent (19:43.589) and Jessica Stein (19:33.219) recorded personal records, finishing 21st, 33rd and 34th, respectively, while junior Emma Creviston finished 31st with a time of 19:19.618 in the women’s 5K.
Freshman Breanna Day made her debut for Racer cross country, placing 47th. Other notable Racers were senior Ashley Zimmerman, who placed 52nd at 21:15.870 and junior Sophie Grogan, who finished 57th place at 21:46.600. This pushed the Racers to 166 points and earned them sixth place overall.
Leading the Racers on the men’s side was senior Caleb Kawasaki, placing 25th with a time of 27:06.380, followed by sophomore Benjamin Hall in 32nd with a personal best time of 27:46.2.
Freshman Nathan Quinn started his career by finishing 35th at 27:57.105. Sophomore Ryan Dent followed in 36th, recording a PR of 27:59.4. The last of the top five was junior Christian Slone in 39th at 28:51.349.
Other runners for the men’s team included junior Jordan Higgins in 40th place at 29:00.412 and senior Meyer Makensom in 41st, clocking in at 29:05.542. These men led the Racers to 167 total points and seventh place overall.
“I think overall the team did really well,” Head Coach Adam Kiesler said. “It was really fun to see them compete again since the men haven’t competed in 14 months and the women haven’t competed in over a year. It was good to see them get out and compete.”
Kiesler said he thought many of the runners performed very well, specifically mentioning Wright, Dent, Stein and Hall, who all had PRs.
“I think Ben Hall did well over winter break and carried that into practice the first few weeks,” Kiesler said. “He showed that he did the work and can continue putting in the work. Overall we are just working towards that March first date, which is cross country OVC, to be able to do as well as we can.”
The Racers will compete next when they host the Murray State Open at Miller Memorial Golf Course on Friday, Feb. 5, at 2 p.m.
