For the first time since 2016, the Ferris cross country teams acted as hosts to the GLIAC championship races on Saturday, Oct. 26.
Seven weeks removed from the Ray Helsing Bulldog Invitational where the Bulldogs raced on their home course, Ferris returned to Katke Golf Course which served as the conference finals racetrack.
The Bulldogs placed sixth overall in the women’s team standings and seventh in the men’s. Grand Valley State University placed first in both divisions. Senior Hanna Brock, junior Whitney Farrell and junior Cooper Sorsen took home All-GLIAC Second Team honors after their respective finishes.
Head coach Jared Kelsh remained positive despite the final result of the conference match.
compete in the men’s GLIAC cross country
championship. Photo by: Sam Mulder | Torch Photographer
“It’s always nice to have a second home meet because we get so much support from the community and administration,” Welsh said. “Our groups did well of sticking together and holding each other accountable, we were hoping to be higher up as a team but there are things to fine-tune in time for regionals in two weeks.”
In the women’s race, Brock led the team, finishing 12th overall out of 109 total runners and with a final time of 21:54.0 in the 6k event. Farrell was close behind, finishing 15th overall with a final time of 21:57.6. This was a personal record time for Farrell in the 6k event, overtaking her previous personal best of 22:30.20 at the Lewis Conference Crossover.
Farrell gave a lot of credit to Brock for her performance in the championship race.
“A major role that played into getting my personal record was having Hanna there,” Farrell said. “We’ve been emphasizing pack running this year so when I have a weak race, she’s there pulling me along and vice versa. We’re going to take this race as a learning step and try to place higher as a team in regionals.”
The women’s team improved on their team time after placing eighth in the conference at last year’s GLIAC championship race. Four Bulldog women’s runners finished inside the top 40.
For the men’s race, Sorsen placed 11th overall out of 110 total runners in the 8k event with a final time of 24:52.2. This was also a personal record for Sorsen beating out his previous record time of 25:00.60 during the Lewis Conference Crossover earlier this year. Junior Gavin Vansolkema was the next Bulldog to place finishing 34th overall and sporting a final time of 26:16.4.
Vansolkema gave his thoughts on what the team could do better in their potential final race, the regional tournament.
“We came out really fast today, so we need to make a better conscious effort to slow it down,” Vansolkema said. “The regional race is a 10k not 8 so we got a few extra miles. Being able to pull back, be smart and realize where we’re at will help us.”
The men’s team placed 7th in the GLIAC standings last year as well but improved on their individual times heading into the end of the season. Three Ferris men’s runners placed inside the top 40.
Both Bulldog cross-country teams will compete in the NCAA DII Midwest Regional race on Saturday, Nov. 9. The races will take place in Romeoville, Ill. Last season, the men’s team placed 17th out of 32 racing teams with 478 total points. The women’s team placed 12th overall and had 375 total points.
Ferris will look to build off its conference race performance in hopes of earning a bid to the NCAA DII National Championship race in late November.