Muhlenberg’s men’s and women’s cross country teams attended the Centennial Conference Championships at McDaniel College on Saturday, Oct. 28. After persevering through challenging course conditions and rather surprising October heat, the men’s team placed seventh overall and the women’s team ninth.
Co-captain Caitlin Kinnear ‘24 elaborated on the race conditions. “This weekend’s race was a tough one because of the conditions. Being on a course that was a lot hillier than our team is used to and running in hotter weather than we usually do [required] us to have to trust our training and put in a lot of effort in the race. So, given the conditions and change from our typical races, the race went well as we all persevered through a pretty challenging course.”
“We showed up to the course the day before the meet. All of us were daunted by it. The elevation on both the men’s and women’s courses was crazy. The turns were really tight on the course as well,” adds Isabelle Hoffman ‘26.
Regardless of the terrain, the Mules dug into their team culture and put their best foot forward– quite literally. Hoffman continues, “Knowing we are in one of the hardest conferences for cross country and competing on the hardest course is definitely a lot of pressure. However, we focused on placement rather than time knowing it would be difficult to get our personal best. We all supported each other during the race. It was a proud moment for everyone after we crossed the finish line knowing that we put in 100 percent.”
Amidst all of the pressures at that championship meet, there were several standout individual performances. Among those included Raam Ravishankar ‘27 who placed eighth overall for first-years, and Kinnear who finished first on Muhlenberg’s women’s side for the sixth time this season!
