UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. – Saginaw Valley State University sophomore Sophia Potter led the women's cross country team with a win while junior John Buck was the top finisher on the men's side as SVSU hosted the Cardinal Classic on Saturday morning.
Potter finished the women's 6k with a time of 24 minutes, 33.6 seconds to earn the win. Grace Harkenrider placed second with a time of 24:44.50 while Aubree Sedore helped the Cards sweep the top-three with a finish of 25:47.10.
Tara Szuper finished in fifth with a time of 26:57.10 to give SVSU four of the top five finishes in the race. Clara Krupp finished in 29:16.80 to earn 11th while Anna Alexander was 14th with a time of 29:40.20.
The Cardinal women had a team average pace of 26:15.82 and finished with 22 team points to win top the team standings.
Buck boasted a finish of 27:23 in the men's 8k run to earn the win. Zach DeBeauclair finished second with a time of 27:30.60 and Alex Grifka was fourth with a finish of 27:56.20. The 8th-ranked SVSU men's team tallied three of the top-five finishes and six of the top-six times.
David Ferguson placed seventh with a 28:05.20 finish. Bryce Husen crossed the finish line in 28:07.20 to earn eighth. Eric Niestroy finished out the top-ten places for the Cardinals with a time of 28:31.40.
Wyatt Dean (11th, 28:33), Caleb Smith (12th, 28:45.20), Lukas Kriesch (13th, 28:53.20), Landon Mars (14th, 29:05.70), Shane Siterlet (15th, 29:07.90), Bryce Brown (16th, 29:42.30), and Cameron Sherrill (18th, 30:02.60) were the rest of the finishes for Saginaw Valley State.
The men's team set a team-average finish of 27:48.60 and totaled 18 points to win the men's race as a team.
Both Cardinal cross country squads will head to Illinois to compete in a big regular season race at Lewis University next Saturday, October 7.
