September 14, 2013 - Geneva College
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September 14, 2013

The Geneva Cross Country teams traveled to Erie to compete in the Behrend Invitational. The Geneva women finished fifth out of the 14 teams racing and Men finished eight out of the 14 men′s teams. The finishes don′t do the day justice on paper with multiple personal records being shattered and performance creeping up on Geneva′s school records.

Erie, PA - The Geneva Cross Country teams traveled to Erie to compete in the Behrend Invitational. The Geneva women finished fifth out of the 14 teams racing and Men finished eight out of the 14 men′s teams.

In women′s action, Head Coach Brian Yowler says, "I was very impressed by our performance today. It′s very early in our season, but we were aggressive and competed very hard against a solid field of DII and DIII schools." Alayna Merkle ran the third fastest cross country 5K in Geneva History with a time of 19:04, only three seconds from the current school record. Heidi Steiner ran a personal record at 19:58. Anna Kluitenberg was over one minute faster than last year′s 5K at Saint Vincent. Emily Stone also broke her 5K record from last year at Saint Vincent. Yowler continues stating, "good things are to come."

"The men had a solid day as well" says Yowler. "We went out aggressively and fought hard." Freshman Ken Kutcel led the way again in 28:21; the fastest time by a Geneva freshman since 2010. Kutcel was closely followed by Jacob Beshner; running his first race after recovering from an injury. To top it all, Sam Batchelder and Glenn Wargo both made new personal records by over a minute.

Both teams will take the week off from competition. Their next race will be hosted by Thiel on Saturday, September 28th starting at 10 a.m.

Geneva College is a comprehensive Christian college of the arts, sciences and professional studies. Founded in the tradition of the Reformed Christian faith, Geneva prepares students to serve Christ in all areas of society: work, family and the church. Geneva College′s philosophy of education is based on the Foundational Concepts of Christian Higher Education. Geneva is a founding member of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU).

Sep 14, 2013