No. 17 Men and No. 20 Women to Race at NAIA Great Lakes Challenge

Helena, Mont. – The No. 20 Women’s Cross Country and No. 17 Men’s Cross Country Saints travel to their biggest meet of the season for the NAIA Great Lakes Challenge on Saturday October 25 in Grand Rapids, Mich.

The Saints will race 14 competitors in Michigan – 7 women and 7 men. On the men’s side, 5 individuals have raced for the Saints in Michigan before including seniors Zack Gacnik, Brycen Gardner, Daniel Koralewski, and Peter Rehberger. The women bring a relatively young and new group to the meet along with veterans Madalen Shipman and Isabelle Ruff.

The women’s race will include 15 NAIA teams ranked in the Top 25 or Receiving Votes while the men’s race will include 16. Frontier Conference foes Rocky Mountain College and Montana Tech will also attend the meet. Rocky is ranked No. 14 for the men and Montana Tech No. 17 for the women.

Weather is expected to be cool and fairly calm after a rainy week. The start and finish locations for the race have changed slightly, hopefully preventing the usual bottleneck at 800m into the race. Fast times are typically expected due to the lower altitude, long straightaways, and strong competition at the meet. 

“This is a good opportunity as always to race in a great atmosphere with the potential to bring out our best,” said Head Coach Shannon Flynn. “We have a lot of pieces that indicate our ceiling is high, and we’re really grateful the athletes are buying into the process and working intentionally to help those different components come together at the right time,” she added.

The men’s 8k race will start at 10:00 am Eastern Time at Riverside Park in Grand Rapids with the women’s 5k race at 11:00 am Eastern.

Live results will be available at this LINK.

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