Tabor men 11th, Lady Jays 12th
The Tabor College cross country team competed Friday at the Jock’s Nitch Emporia State University Invitational at Emporia.
Of 14 teams, the men finished 11th with 285 points while the women came in 12th out of 18 with 305 points.
The meet was not originally scheduled, but was added to replace the Friends’ meet, which was rained out.
In the women’s division, Johnson County Community College was the overall winner, edging Mid-America Nazarene, 71-74.
The hosting Hornets cruised to an easy victory for the men, beating JCCC, 34-80.
“This was a highly competitive meet with some of the top NCAA Division II and NAIA teams in the region running,” Bluejay coach Karol Hunt said.
Leading the way for the men was Zac Remboldt, who ran the 8k in 28 minutes, 22 seconds for 32nd place out of 116 finishers.
Dan Sigley was 58th (29:01), 12 seconds and two spots ahead of teammate Zach Gould.
Ric Johnson finished 82nd in 30:18 and Justin Ball was 98th (32:14).
“Zac Remboldt ran an outstanding, competitive race and cut his time by more than a minute from the last race,” said Hunt. “Dan rebounded from a subpar race at the Tabor meet and ran 1:15 faster.
“Zach Gould also reduced his time by 19 seconds. Our top three did really well for us.”
Christina Addison spearheaded the women, taking 29th out of 131 in the 5k race in 20:29.
Kelli Kopper came in second for the Lady Bluejays, running a 58th-place time of 21:47.
Jera Teselle followed at 68th (22:03), Leah Kopper was 78th in 22:25 — 38 seconds quicker than last week.
Carrie Schroeder was 88th in 22:50, Tessa Siebert was 96th (23:18), Julia Carlton 111th (23:47), and Elissa Richert came in 114th (23:44).
“This meet was a good test for us,” Hunt said. “It’s always good to run against great competition because it stretches us and forces us to get better.”
The Bluejays are in action Saturday, traveling to McPherson for the Bulldog Cross Country invitational held at the McPherson Country Club.
The women are scheduled to start at 10 a.m. with the men taking off 45 minutes later.
“After two large meets in a row, we will be able to run in a smaller, confidence-building meet,” said Hunt.