Freshmen Lead CMS Men's Cross Country to Second-Place Finish at Biola Invitational

LA MIRADA, Calif. - The freshman class produced four of the top six finishers for the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's cross country team as it finished in second place out of six teams at the Biola Invitational on Saturday morning.

Host Biola had five of the top eight finishers to come in first place with 28 points, followed by the Stags in second place with 49 points. Westmont finished in third place with 72 points, led by meet winner Michael Oldach (25:25.80), while SCIAC rivals La Verne and Chapman finished in fourth and fifth with 104 points and 128 points, respectively. 

For the second straight race to start his young collegiate career, freshman Kyril Van Schendel was the first Stag to cross, coming in fourth place overall and third among collegiate competitors with a 25:42.09 over the 8K race. Fellow freshman Miles Christensen was the next CMS runner to finish, ending with a time of 26:11.60 to come in tenth (out of 66 runners). 

Christensen was followed closely by senior Ben Iten in 11th place in 26:15.26, and sophomore William Kimball also scored for the Stags with a 14th place finish in 26:40.69. Two more freshmen were the fifth and sixth place runners for CMS, as Alexander Hirsch came in 17th place with a time of 26:54.42 and Adam Wilkinson was also in the top 20, coming in 19th with a 26:57.98. 

Three straight CMS runners came in the 21-23 spots, with junior Wilson Ives leading the mini-pack with a 27:06.55, followed closely by senior Charlie Harris (27:08.24) and freshman Thomas Fleming (27:08.58). Sophomore Evan Hassman (27:18.18, 25th), sophomore Daniel Sealand (27:18.63. 26th), junior Brooks MacDonald (27:26.11, 30th), freshman Garrick Jensen (27:26:35, 31st) and senior Matt Psaltakis (27:33.57, 33rd) also finished in the top half of the 66-runner field. 

CMS will be back in action next weekend when it travels to the UC Riverside Invitational on Saturday morning.