Ball State’s Cross Country team competed in its fourth meet this season at the Bradley Pink Invitational in Peoria, Illinois. The Cardinals placed 22nd out of 33 teams with 491 points.
Although today’s meet had a lot of competitors, head coach Adrian Wheatley said he saw good effort and great mindsets today and that the team has made major improvements since the season’s opener.
“I think we did a better job… everything we're doing is getting ready for the next couple of weeks,” Wheatley said. “We’re getting better every day.”
The team competed in two races. In the first race, the Cardinals had two individual runners; freshman Kendyl Thrasher placed 67th with a time of 24:31.8 and senior Ashley Craycraft placed 121st with a time of 26:42.8.
Meanwhile, in the second race, junior Sarah Mahnensmith led with a time of 21:53.1, placing 34th out of 249 runners.
Sophomore Carly Spletzer followed Mahnensmith with a time of 22:18.5, placing 66th overall.
Juniors Shelby Christman and Jessica Velez finished next, placing 102nd and 112th, respectively.
Sophomore Ella Fullmer followed, placing 211th; following closely behind her was Freshman Maci Hoskins, who placed 219th.
With only two weeks until the Mid-American Conference (MAC) Championship, Wheatley maintained that in order to make progress and get to where they want to be as a team, they don’t have to change a thing.
“We're just going to make sure that we continue to do what we've been doing,” Wheatley said.
Ball State Cross Country will be back in action Oct. 28th at the MAC Championship meet in Bowling Green, Ohio.
Contact Lauren Graham at lauren.graham@bsu.edu.
