Tech XC Concludes Regular Season At Lewis Crossover

ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – The Michigan Tech cross country squads completed the regular season at the Lewis Crossover in Romeoville, Illinois, at the Lewis Cross Country Course on Saturday morning. 

Both teams placed 13th overall in the team race. The women's field showcased 33 teams, with the men's race seeing 25 teams make the start line.

"We ran good races today," head coach Kristina Owen said. "Our strength is when we work together as a pack and we saw a lot of our athletes working together and finishing tightly grouped. Hannah Loughlin had another great one out there today running another PR and almost a minute and a half faster than she was at this race last year.

"Our freshmen Sophia Rhein and Hailee Zimpel continue to impress and Anabel Needham saw nice improvement on last years time as well. On the men's side, Sam Lange is coming back to full strength and he, Nick McKenzie and Henry Snider are a powerful lead trio."

The women took to the Lewis Cross Country Course first, seeing Hannah Loughlin remain the low-stick for the Black & Gold, breaking 22 minutes for the first time in her career, running 21:47.9. 

The freshmen duo of Sophia Rhein (22:54.9) and Hailee Zimpel (23:06.2) ran personal-bests to be the second and third scorers for the Huskies, placing 86th and 108th, respectively. 

Rhein's performance was the first time breaking 23 for the first time. 

Anabel Needham and Ingrid Halverson rounded out the Huskies top-five, running 23:11.1 and 23:23.5, respectively.

Cedar Gordon posted a small personal-best with a time of 23:25.4, placing 136th, followed by Mady VanWieren (23:32.1) in 155th place.

Sam Lange returned to the sub-25-minute club to lead the men of Michigan Tech, with his performance placing him 41st overall in 24:54.0.

The Huskies entire top-five ran under 25:30 on a blisteringly fast day, with the winner of the men's race clocking 23:46.7.

Henry Snider was the second runner for the Huskies, finishing just outside of the 25-minute barrier in 25:01.0 to place 55th in the race. Nick McKenzie was close behind in 25:03 for 61st overall. Snider's performance was a personal-best by nearly 40 seconds.

Sam Marshall and Callen Carrier remained in the top-five for the Huskies, also turning out personal-bests. Marshall clocked in at 25:26.4 while Carrier ran 25:29.9 with individual finishes of 105th and 111th, respectively.

Ben Conlin ran to a personal-best time of 25:32.6 with Naseem Dhaouadi close behind in 25:39.1 to round out the Huskies top-7.

"We ran some strong races in what very well could be the best Division II meet until the National Championships," assistant head coach Robert Young added. "Competition of this caliber allows us to really test ourselves and our student-athletes will benefit from having the chance to race in fields like these. Evidence of this is clear as we saw a huge portion of our team run personal-bests today."

Up Next

The Huskies look to shift into the postseason, playing host to the GLIAC Cross Country Championships, being held at the Tech Trails on Oct. 21, for the first time in a decade.