Lady Bluejays take third at home invitational
Tabor College Lady Bluejay cross-country team finished third Saturday in its home meet held at Cottonwood Point Marion Reservoir.
Of the 14 competing schools, Tabor accumulated 114 points to finish second only to Kansas Wesleyan in KCAC finishers.
Johnson County Community College edged the Lady Coyotes, 48-53 for first place.
Leading the way for Tabor was Liz Kleinsasser, who set a new personal record in 5K runs with a fifth-place time of 19 minutes, 26 seconds.
Heidi Schmidt closed out the top-10 finishers for the Bluejays, taking eighth (19:41).
Tabor got a huge lift Saturday with the return of Amber Wiens, who was third for Tabor, coming in at 33rd in 20:49.
"Amber was back in action for the first time since being sidelined last spring with a knee injury," coach Karol Hunt said. "It's positive to have Amber back. Her experience and senior leadership are invaluable."
Eight seconds behind Wiens was Jera Teselle (37th, 20:58), who cut nearly 2:30 off her previous personal record.
"Jera is starting to run competitively which is a big boost to the team," said Hunt. "Her freshman year was hampered by injuries."
The competition was heated with four teammates vying to finish in the top 50 out of 90 runners — all four finishing within 13 seconds and one place of each other.
Leah Kopper was 48th with Carrie Schroeder one spot behind, separated by a mere two seconds at 21:29 and 21:31, respectively, to close out Tabor's top 50 placers.
A lone second was all that kept Ashley Schmidt (53, 21:41) and Shelby Miller (54, 21:42) apart.
The Bluejays freshman class of Tessa Siebert and Elissa Richert also showed vast improvements by setting new personal bests.
Siebert knocked nearly a minute off her previous record, finishing 70th while Richert shaved off nearly 1:30 with a 24:01 time for 82nd.
The men's team was eighth out of 14 with 177 points, while the Cavaliers cruised to another top-finish with 25 points.
Tabor was third out of the six KCAC schools, and the Friends Falcons were third overall.
Zac Remboldt continued to be on the rampage, grabbing 29th in a new record time of 29 minutes flat on the 8-kilometer course.
Dan Sigley got off to a shaky start, but he's getting his competitiveness back as he took 34th place in his second best time of the season (29:12).
Justin Ball was 13 seconds and four places behind Sigley, lowering his personal best time of 21:41 by sixteen seconds.
Tabor's fourth and fifth-place runners Caleb Schroeder and Ric Johnson, showed improvements from two weeks ago, coming in 54th (30:02), and 78th (31:30).
Three other competitors set new personal records as well, with Adam McPeck, Michael Adamyk, and Warren McCamey. McPeck sped up by 1:47 for 82nd, (31:42), Adamyk by 44 seconds (95th, 34:11), and McKamey by nearly a half-minute for 104th (38:38).
"It's always good to compete on the home course," Hunt said. "Familiarity is a bonus and we don't have to travel. We are progressing well with our training."
The Bluejays return to the course Oct. 6 with a road meet at the McPherson Country Club.
Women begin at 10 a.m. with the men starting 45 minutes later
