The Blue Angels and Blue Devils cross country teams of Kaskaskia College closed out their seasons at the NJCAA National Championships. The DII championships along with DI and DIII were all hosted by Iowa Central College in Fort Dodge, IA.
Under overcast skies and temperatures in the mid-forties with slight wind gust, the Blue Angels came out of box 25 with the blast of a cannon from the local Army National Guard Post. The Lakeside Golf Course has been the site of several championships over the years and was in great racing conditions. The Blue Angels ended the day in 9th place, the best finish ever for the KC cross country program. Leading the way was Summer Chelf as she battled in the top ten most of the race and ended in 19th at the finish in a time of 20 minute and 11.8 seconds. Her 19th place finish earned her Coaches Association All American status, which is another first for the program, KC’s first All American in cross country. Next to cross the finish line was sophomore Elyse Faust in a time of 20 minutes and 43.5 seconds good for 30th. Cheyenne Finley was 37th in a time of 20 minutes and 59 seconds. The fourth counter was Gracee Kelly in a time of 22 minutes and 41 seconds. Mya Albers was the 5th counter in a time of 23 minutes and 13 seconds. Abby Bloemer finished with a season best time of 23 minutes and 28 seconds and Macie Hargis finished in 24 minutes and 53 seconds.
The Blue Devils raced out of box 23 and came into the meet ranked 20th and had their sights on moving up in the rankings. Racing without their normal number 4, the back end of the line up was going to have to set up and Andrew Stevenson and Alex Huegen were able to get the job done, as both Blue Devils had personal best days, finishing with times of 31 minutes and 52 seconds and 32 minutes and 5 seconds over the 8K distance. Braden Tate finished the day in a time of 32 minutes and 25 seconds. On the top side of the line, the trio of Noah Probst, Alex Detmer, and Ty Reynold had outstanding efforts. At mile one the pack of three were within 1 second of each other, at mile 2 the spread was less than 12 seconds. At the end of the day Noah Probst crossed the finish in 27 minutes and 56 seconds, followed by Alex Detmer in 28 minutes and 18 seconds, then Reynolds in 28 minutes and 46 seconds. All three moved into the top times for KC men on this course. The Blue Devils were able to reach their goal of improving their regular season rankings by earning a hard fought 14th place team finish.
