GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- The Indiana Wesleyan University cross country team participated in the NAIA Region VIII Championships on Saturday afternoon in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The women placed second and the men finished fourth.

The No. 5-ranked Wildcat women earned runner-up with 64 points, five points behind the regional champion, No. 10-ranked Indiana Tech with 59 points. No. 13-ranked Spring Arbor (Mich.) University placed third with 69 points and No. 16-ranked Aquinas (Mich.) College finished fourth with 108 points.

IWU senior Emily LaSala earned third place in the meet with a time of 18 minutes and 11 seconds. Amanda Strouse of Aquinas won the individual championship by completing the 5,000-meter course in a time of 17:56.

The No. 15-ranked IWU men ended in fourth place with 104 points. No. 2-ranked Aquinas captured the team championship with 48 points as No. 4 Cornerstone (Mich.) University was second with 56 points and No. 20 Huntington (Ind.) University was third with 89 points.

Wildcat senior Elias Rojas was the top finisher for Indiana Wesleyan as he placed ninth with a finishing time of 25:35. Cornerstone’s Derek Scott won the meet by running the 8,000-meter course in a time of 24:35.

NAIA National Championship team and individual qualifiers will be announced by the beginning of next week.


IWU Women’s Results:
LaSala – 18:11
Wagner – 19:00
Whitaker – 19:07
Bucher – 19:09
Lacy – 19:12
Morgan – 19:18
Moffitt – 19:33
Nussbaum – 19:38
Bea – 19:39
Dziagwa – 19:53
McNichols – 20:03
Moyer – 20:09
Avroy – 20:26
Hulton – 21:45
Froderman – 22:00

IWU Men’s Results:
Rojas – 25:35
Foss – 25:55
Hazel – 25:56
Ballard – 26:23
Miller – 26:30
Hutchins – 27:17
Alles – 27:53
Schweigert – 28:29
Slabaugh – 28:51