WICHITA – Kansas Wesleyan cross country opened its 2023 season on Saturday at the JK Gold Invitational, hosted by Wichita State University, and both squads posted strong results in their respective races.
The men posted a second-place finish, besting a field of seven teams that featured some of the top teams in the state at various levels.KWU finished with 72 points, only behind host Wichita State that finished with 16. Newman University was third with 86, Emporia State was fourth with 88, followed by Cowley CC, Friends and Mid-America Christian.
Damion Jackson led the Coyotes over the 6K course with a 14th place finish, in 19:05.73. Austin Hess was 15th in 19:17.90, Jake Cruz was 16th in 19:20.09, Carter Huyser was 22nd in 19:36.68, Shane Calvin was 24th in 19:41.80, Giovanni Rios was 25th in 19:42.88, Cisco Alvarez was 26th in 19:52.41, Tytus Reed was 30th in 20:07.64, Brenden Ellis was 33rd in 20:14.16, Jack Horacek was 38th in 20:23.46, Julian Avila was 40th in 20:28.33, Wyatt Johnson was 44th in 20:34.29, Brodie Bradshaw was 48th in 20:57.70, Triston Cottone was 53rd in 21:19.74, Ty Davidson was 54th in 21:28.13, Cameron Churchill-Dowd w as 55th in 21:29.20, Roman Mai was 63rd in 21:51.04, Zackary Tibbits was 72nd in 22:07.58, Remington Wiseman was 79th in 24:17.05, and Hayden Dotson was 81st in 26:49.24.On the women's side the Coyotes were fourth, but were only two points out of second place among the six teams.
Wichita State was the winner with 15 points, followed by Newman with 93, Cowley CC with 94 and KWU was fourth with 95 points.
Madisyn Ehlrich was the top finisher for the Coyotes in 13th with a time of 20:00.20 for the 5K course. Josie Koppes placed 16th with a time of 20:13.60, Alayna Behrman was 25th in 21:15.40, Joni Schroeder was 26th in 21:17.10, Shelby Lingle was 29th in 21:36.50, Allyson Taylor was 30th in 21:50.20, Josey Arthurs was 33rd in 22:22.50, Ashley Prochazka was 37th in 22:51.90, and Charlee Lind was 43rd in 23:58.30.
The Coyotes are back in action on September 16 at the Woody Greeno / Jay Dirksen Invitational in Omaha, Nebraska.