By TRENTON JUDD
Student Reporter
By both team and personal measures, this has been a successful year for the Northwestern cross country team.
The team has competed in seven meets in four states. Out of the seven meets the team has competed at Coach Jeremy Jones pointed out that “two of the best meets we competed at this year were the Chili Pepper Fest and the Fort Hays State Tiger Open.” The Chili Pepper Fest in Fayetteville, Ark. was the fourth meet this year and according to Jones “many of the team members that attended that meet were able to leave with some new personal run times.”
The Fort Hays State Tiger Open in Hays, Kan. was the sixth meet of the year and it turned out to be a very good meet for the cross country team. Jones said, “It was a great day overall and we had eight people that set a new personal run time for themselves.”
Three members of the track team set new records for Northwestern. The men’s cross country record was 27 minutes and 16 seconds, but Sterlin Broomfield broke this record by a running time of 27 minutes and 8 seconds. The women’s cross country record was 19 minutes and 58 seconds, but two of Northwestern’s cross country runners beat this record. The first was Brittany Urban, who had a time of 19 minutes and 44 seconds. Urban said, “I feel really honored to have broken the school record. I think that it is so great to be acknowledged for something that you love doing.” The second runner to beat the school record was Willow Gahr, who had a time of 19 minutes and 46 seconds. Gahr said, “The only idea that I had going into this race was to finish and before the race started I was pumped up and ready to go. When I found out what my time was I turned to Brittany and cried because I was so happy that I did that well.”
Northwestern’s cross country team will have their last meet Saturday at the GAC Championships in Ada, Okla. Jones said, “Even though we have one meet to go I would say the cross country team has achieved their goal for this year, but a personal goal that I always like to have in mind is to keep moving forward.”