The Northern Kentucky University men’s and women’s cross country teams began the season on Sunday at the Belmont Opener in Nashville. Both teams took fifth place overall, with the men totaling 148 points in the 8-kilometer event, and the women finishing with 123 points in the 5-kilometer race.
“With our first race back, we knew it wasn’t going to be an incredible performance day,” NKU head coach Steve Kruse said. “But we had beautiful weather and our women’s team did really well despite the result; they ran together quite nicely. As for the men, we couldn’t go out the way we wanted to go out.
Steve Kruse
“Understandably a five-mile race is tougher than a three-mile, so we’re just excited and looking ahead to when we compete again in a couple of weeks.”
Men’s results
The fastest time of the day for NKU was Kyle Mastin (13 points), who ran 25:56.66 and placed 16th overall.
Following Mastin were three Norse in the 27-minute range. Garret Ardis (36th, 30 points, 27:34.21), Nicholas Lee (39th, 33 points, 27:48.26) and an NKU debut performance from Cody Chism (40th, 34 points, 27:48.262).
Senior Zach Birdsall (38 points) finished 46th overall, with a time of 28:27.85.
The final Norse competing were Keaton Downey (54th, 43 points, 29:18.03) and Ethan Ennis (59th,45 points, 29:55.86).
The race featured 12 teams with 76 participants. Miami (Ohio) won the overall team title with a total of 21 points.
Women’s results
Coming in first for the Norse was Megan Cole (16 points) completing a time of 18:39.83 and finishing 16th overall.
Following Cole was Sophia DeLisio (27th, 25 points, 19:06.404), Sydnee Mangette (28th, 26 points, 19:07.97), Maddie Frey (29th, 27 points, 19:10.81), Nelle Yankovich (31st, 29 points, 19:16.97) and Jaquelyn Witt (34th, 32 points, 19:20.66).
The race featured 12 teams with 89 participants. Miami (Ohio) took first place overall with a total of 29 points.
From NKU Athletics Communications
