The men and women’s cross country team traveled to Taylor University in Indiana for the Midwest XC Challenge on Oct. 24. Both teams dominated the Challenge in their respective races, marking another great competition for the runners. 

The men’s team competed in the purple race, an 8k which included 12 other teams. Senior Dylan Allen placed six among 88 athletes, coming in first for Point Park. Allen finished his race in 27 minutes and 52 seconds. 

Sophomore John Ziegler also scored for the men’s team taking 17th place with a time of 28:51. 

“As a whole, the team did pretty well. Dylan Allen delivered another strong performance finishing in the top ten,” Ziegler said. “In two weeks, the men’s team will be looking to dethrone IU Kokomo in the River States Conference Meet. This year, IU East is hosting the meet, and we have high expectations to compete for the title this year.” 

Sophomore Bailey Hourihan ran a 30:16 for his race, a good comeback from an injury suffered in his last competition at Taylor University. 

“It was a good first race back from being injured for me.” Hourihan said. “My plan was to go out a bit slower than I usually do in the beginning to get used to racing again.” 

“Team-wise everyone probably had their best race so far for this season, and we are just building up for our conference meet on Nov. 7.” 

The men’s team took second place overall in their race. 

The women’s team also competed in the purple race, a 5k, taking first place out of nine other schools. Junior Alyssa Campbell came in second place with a time of 18:25, just 10 seconds shy of first place runner Lexi Jackson of IU Kokomo.

Campbell also secured a new personal record, beating her previous time by three seconds. 

“I’ve been trying to get a new record since my last race freshman year and this year I finally got it with the good course conditions. Not to mention I had great competition to race against. We raced against a lot of teams in our conference and we came in first against them twice which is really great,” Campbell said. “It shows we’re putting in the work for a great conference meet.” 

Three of the women placed in the top ten of the race. Alyssa Boyd finished sixth with a time of 20:03 and Alex Barr eighth with a time of 20:39. 

Both the men and women will compete in the River States Conference Championship on Nov. 7 at Indiana University East.