CROSS COUNTRY: YellowJacket men take five of the top nine finishes at Centenary's Gator Run
SHREVEPORT, La. – The LeTourneau men's cross country team turned in one of its strongest performances of the season while women's runner Hannah Wiedenfeld recorded her second consecutive Top 10 finish at the Gator Run hosted by Centenary College on Saturday.
The top five YellowJacket runners all finished in among the top nine in the men's division as LeTourneau finished a point behind the hosts in the final team standings.
For the third time in as many weeks, Peter Martin (San Antonio, Texas/San Antonio Christian) led the YellowJackets team as he placed second with a final time of 17 minutes, 1 second.
Last week, Palmer earned LeTourneau its first ASC Player of the Week award when he was the first Division III runner to finish the Louisiana Tech Mook 4 Invitational.
Brendan Palmer (Westerville, Ohio/Home school) recorded his highest finish of the season with a fifth-place, completing the race with a time of 17:32. Blake Barringer (Willis, Texas/Covenant Christian) was 10 seconds behind his teammate, finishing sixth.
Tim McDougall (Glendora, Calif./Glendora) and Josh Collins (Fort Worth, Texas/Richland) rounded out the LeTourneau team score by finishing eighth and ninth, respectively. McDougall finished the race with a time of 19:15 and Collins was nine seconds behind him.
Matthew Crall (Little Rock, Ark./Home school) also competed for the YellowJacket men. In his season debut, Crall finished the Gator Run with a time of 20:59.
Runners from LeTourneau and Centenary took the first nine places, with Jonathan Martin of Centenary winning the event with a time of 16:50. The Gentlemen won the team event by one point, scoring a race-low 29 points to LeTourneau's 30.
On the women's side of the bracket, Wiedenfeld (Crystal Lake, Ill./Home school) recorded her highest finish of the season when she crossed the finish line sixth with a time of 22:42.
Gianna Canales (Bandera, Texas/Bandera) was the second YellowJacket woman to cross the finish line, taking 12th place with a time of 26:06. Canales was also the second LeTourneau finisher at last week's Mook 4.
Two more Jackets came in one after the other to follow Canales and finish 13th and 14th, respectively. Leah Quesenberry (Crozet, Va./Western Albemarle) finished the Gator Run with a time of 26:47, while Hollie Bryant (Howe, Texas/Howe) was two seconds behind her teammate.
A late addition to the YellowJackets' squad, Quesenberry made great strides in her second collegiate race, as she almost literally beat her time from the shorter Mook 4 run last week.
Chelsea Stephens (Longview, Texas/Spring Hill) rounded out LeTourneau's score by finishing with a time of 40:30.
