(Geneva, IL.) - Waubonsee Community College's Women's and Men's Cross Country teams competed at the Aurora University Spartan Classic on September 9. Coach Eric Baron's ladies, ranked 18th in the NJCAA Division II Cross Country Pre-season Coaches' poll, placed fifth as a team with 155 points. The Chiefs' men's squad tallied a score of 216 and finished eighth at the hilly Northwestern Medicine Cross Country Course in Geneva on a beautiful, fall morning.

Kalamazoo (MI) College narrowly won the women's team title with a score of 38 points. The host school Aurora University tied for second with Wheaton College, both totalling 42 points. Seventy-four runners from 11 different schools participated. The women's 5K was won by Aurora University's Deyanneira Colon-Maldonado who covered the course in a time of 22:38, finishing 14 seconds ahead of the second place finisher Paige Anderson from Kalamazoo. Waubonsee's contingent all finished in a pack with Megan Johnson placing 29th in a time of 30:40 to lead the way. The Chiefs' Nuria Pugh was right behind her in 30th position, Rose Dallal placed 31st, Emma Perry was 32nd and Abbigail Placido came in 33rd.

Wheaton College took the men's title with a score of 25, well ahead of second place Aurora's total of 55 points. Ninety-eight runners from 13 schools took part in the 8K men's race with the Crusaders' Sam Elsen regsitering a time of 27:08 to capture first place and lead his team to victory. Benedictine (IL) University's Karan Shetty was second, crossing the finish line seven seconds after Elsen. Waubonsee's Logan Cunz paced coach Baron's crew placing 32nd overall with a time of 29:58. Dayton Beatty finished 37th, while the rest of Waubonsee's runners finished tightly together as well. Huitzi Del Real was 48th, Owen Kroeyr was right behind him in 49th place, Finn Gannon crossed the finish line next in 50th place and Ricardo Duran came in 52nd.    

Waubonsee is set to compete again on Saturday, September 23 at the University Wisconsin-Plattville Gender Equity Invite at the Cole Acres Golf Course in Cuba City, Wisconsin.