Elsah, ILL. -- The Principia Cross Country teams had a wet and muddy start to their 2012 season! Principia College hosted a tri-meet with Illinois College and Westminster College on Saturday, September 1st. Similar to the Cowbell Classic, which takes place every October, the Principia Home Opener was raced through the cornfields adjacent to the college campus. The off-and-on rain made for a slippery course but the spectators had fun and the athletes ran well!
Running after the women's race, the Principia College Men's Cross Country team had to run through mud puddles and wet trails that 30 women had already raced through. Juniors
Wylie Mangelsdorf, Derrick Felming, and
Adam Rolph found themselves in the lead group early in the 6k race. They ran conservatively as the course was slow and wet, and eventually Mangelsdorf and Rolph pulled ahead with nearly 2,000 meters remaining. They finished first and second with times of 20:05 and 20:24, respectfully. Fleming edged out the the chase pack with a time of 20:44 to complete the 1-2-3 finish for Principia.
Junior
Kynan Witters-Hicks finished 9th and Senior Phil Riley finished 14th to complete the scoring for the Principia Men's team.
Calvin Nyapete and Brigges DeLoach ran very well to round out the scoring for the varsity team.
In the end, Principia narrowly beat Westminster College with a final score of 29-30. All of the Principia athletes ran strongly through the adverse conditions and are looking forward to competing at Grinnell College next weekend!
Full Results:
http://www.trxctiming.com/Principia_College/XC/Opener/Results/2012_Men.htm
