LEWISTON, ID – A group of six LC State Men’s Cross Country seniors led the way for the Warriors at their final home meet on Saturday. With Lewiston native Kobe Wessels at the front of the group in his final race on the course he grew up on, the Warrior men finished sixth at the LC State Invitational.
LC State earned 180 points overall with two runners in the top 50.
“Sometimes it is hard to evaluate competitions,” coach Mike Collins said. “It is so easy to get caught up in just the results, but in sports like running and cross country, there is only one winner, and everyone else comes after. We have been working very hard on separating the results of our competitions from the process we need to go through to be successful. Although today’s results may not look great, I feel we made some very good progress today.”
Wessels finished 45th overall with a time of 25:41 and Alexander Fry was steps behind in 46th (25:43).
Tristin O’Brien ran the fastest race of his career to place 51st in the field (25:52) and Connor Alexander was 56th with a time of 26:05. Fellow seniors Ben Vernon (26:21) and Clay Shumaker (26:39) placed 60th and 69th, respectively.
“The men had some real opportunities today and although it didn’t work out the way we wanted, I think we also saw some good progress,” Collins added. “Our grouping looked good. It was good to see Clay back in the lineup and he showed that he will be a factor before the season is over. I know these guys well enough and have no doubt that they will be fired up over the next few weeks and we will be making the most of our speed work as we go.”
Freshman Malachi Walsh was the next Warrior across the line with a personal-best time of 26:49 to finish 72nd. Sven Druijff, also in his first home meet, was 74th (27:09) and Manuel Valdez raced to an 84th place mark (28:15).
Dawson Welliver ran a PR in his first home meet (28:44) to finish in 88th place, Jace Joslyn was 92nd (30:03) and Christian Lybyer was 96th (32:21).
UP NEXT
LC State will split up next week for a pair of meets. Some Warriors will be in Spokane on Friday for the Sasquatch Invitational while others will travel to Michigan to race in the Great Lakes Challenge on Saturday.
Stay up to date with all things Warrior Athletics at lcwarriors.com and on social media @LCWarriors.
