Season Review: Cross Country
Historic season culminates with 6 runners at nationals
The Lions cross country teams went into the season with lofty goals and expectations, when the season came to the end at the NCCAA National Meet the Lions did more than any other group before them.
The men's team set out to do what no other team in Trinity Cross Country history has ever done before and that was to qualify as a team for the national meet. The Lions competed in the Jimmie Invite on October 5th where the men's team by far had their best race of the season. The Lions finished with their fastest team time in school history, which was 2:51:11.3; this qualified them for nationals which the team to qualify was 3 hours. The Lions did not only qualify as a team they had two individual runners qualify as well in Sam Jacob and Kaleb Renfro. The Men's team finished their season at the National meet and took 5th place, which is the highest place in team history. The Men's team finished the national tournament with a time of 3:02:34. The runners who competed for the Lions in the national tournament were Sam Jacob, Kaleb Renfro, Marcus Staley, Josiah Liebe and Isaiah McIntosh.
For the ladies, Chloe Jacob put up more record times for the Lions this season. She competed in her second straight national tournament as well. At nationals Chloe Jacob ran a time of 21:28, which is a top ten time in school history and was good enough for 10th place at nationals. Along with the national meet, Chloe Jacob set a record 6k time as she competed in a D2 meet and finished with a time of 26:21.2. The Lady Lions only had 3 runners this year Kersten Lucas a freshman had her best time of the season at the Ron Pynn Classic with a time of 24:40, Arianna Bigart had her best time of the season at the Jimmie Invite with a time of 26:06.
The Lions had other accolades this past season as they were awarded 4 NCCAA runners of the week, Chloe Jacob had two, Sam Jacob had one, and Kaleb Renfro also added one. The Lions also had four NCCAA Scholar athletes in Arianna Bigart, Chloe Jacob, Sam Jacob and Kaleb Renfro.
Tanner Twigg SID