Cross Country teams compete at C-USA championship

Jeremy Chisenhall

The WKU men’s and women’s cross country teams competed in the C-USA Championships on Oct. 29, marking their final team meet of the season.

In their first meet since Oct. 1, the men’s team finished ninth out of 11 teams in the 8k.

Senior Endalow Takele led the way for the men’s team, as he finished 20th overall with a time of 25:28.1.

He was followed by junior Julien Cuyeu who finished 33rd with a time of 26:03.2, senior Kyle Wilson who finished 56th with a time of 27:24.9, redshirt sophomore Mark Stice who finished 59th with a time of 27:37.4, freshman Taylor Scarbrough who finished 63rd with a time of 27:53.8 and freshman Bryce Swindell who finished 72nd with a time of 29:06.5.

Takele’s 20th place finish earned him All-Conference honors, as he made the All-Conference USA Third Team.

The women finished 10th out of 13 teams in the 5k. Senior Lindsey Hinken was first for the women, finishing 24th with a time of 18:11.4.

Behind her were sophomore Aleja Grant who finished 53rd with a time of 19:14.2, junior Alexa Brainard who finished 59th with a time of 19:23.0, junior Savannah Ames who finished 60th with a time of 19:30.5, freshman Kyla Scanlon who finished 68th with a time of 19:37.3, freshman Brianna Wolken who finished 83rd with a time of 20:19.5 and sophomore Callie Donaldson who finished 86th with a time of 20:22.7.

With the season coming to an end, Scarbrough commented on how his first season went, and what he expects for his sophomore season.

“Overall, it was good,” Scarbrough said. “My time at the conference (tournament) wasn’t what I wanted, but other than that meet, it was good.”

As for the team’s performance this season, he thought it could have ended better, but still had positives to take away.

“Conference was our end goal, and we didn’t do what we wanted, but we got a lot closer as a team, and we all got better,” Scarbrough said.

Getting closer is positive for this team, considering how young they are. There are six freshmen between the men’s and women’s teams, so building team chemistry will certainly help both teams as they look to improve next season.

Scarbrough also said next year he thinks the team will improve, mainly due to the fact that they’ll have a more rigorous summer training routine.

This past summer, the team did not have a coach, and they had to hold themselves accountable for summer training and offseason preparation.

Scarbrough said having a coach in the offseason will help them have a better work ethic in training.

“I wouldn’t say we all slacked off, but we didn’t work as hard as we would’ve if we had a coach,” Scarbrough said.