Long before both soccer teams, field hockey and volleyball had their semi-final matches, Cross Country ran in their MAC championship meet on October 30 at Delaware Valley. Although Elizabethtown College won both the men’s and women’s titles, Eastern’s teams pulled their weight. The men finished in 9th place and the women finished in 11th place.
“We wanted our guys to be right in the middle of the pack after finishing near the bottom last year – and they did,” assistant coach Mike Wilson said in an email. “Five out of seven guys ran personal best times, and on the women’s side, ten out of 12 girls ran their personal best times.”
Of those women, junior Whitney Kerner ran her personal best time of 24:28.77, just missing an all-conference honor by five seconds. Thankfully, Kerner has another year ahead of her, so she is certain to continue running laps around her opponents.
“She ran with all she had, and we couldn’t have asked for more out of her,” Wilson said.
Other Eastern runners accomplished their own personal bests, including junior Val Wrona who finished second with 26:55.84.
The men were just as impressive, with junior Jonathan Holbert, senior Davis Rideout and sophomore Jonathan Harris rounding out the top three.
Now, however, is the time to run forward, and the Cross Country team aims to do just that at the NCAA Division III Regionals at Slippery Rock, Pa.
“Regionals will hopefully be a race where everyone will get to see the best in the region and be pushed to their season best times,” Wilson said. “After regionals is over, we will start thinking about where our program goes from here and how we can raise the bar for next year.”