EAST LANSING, Mich. – Michigan State Cross Country swept both races at the 43rd-annual Spartan Invitational presented by Auto-Owners Insurance at the Forest Akers East Golf Course Friday morning.
Due to projected warm weather in the forecast the schedule was been moved up an hour with the women’s collegiate 6K starting at 9 a.m., the men’s 8K was at 9:40 a.m.
“I think we evaluate success on how we behaved as a team, the choices we made, competitiveness,” Director of Cross Country and Track & Field Lisa Breznau said. “But really are they making the right decisions to stay competitive as a group and just help one another along. It’s a long season and just being aware of that. Today is a starting point not an ending point and just encouraging them that we are growing from here. I think on the men’s and women’s side what we saw was great but not ending here.
The Michigan State women started the winning with 28 points, just ahead of Grand Valley State with 31 points. Sophia Lucki was the top Spartan finisher, ending with a time of 21:36.1, while Eleanor Kendall was fourth with a time of 21:39.8. Lucki and Kendall both registered personal bests in the 6K race.
MSU finished 6-7-8 behind Taylor Pangburn (6th, 21:45.6), Olivia Millen (7th, 21:52.2) and Taylor Ewert (8th, 21:56.6). Freshman Madison Osterburg and Morgan Brown both ran unattached and had strong showings. Brown finished 14th with a time of 22:11.7, while Osterburg was 15th finishing with 22:15.7.
On the men’s side, the Spartans finished first with 23 points, while Grand Valley State was second with 41 points. Alexander Penski finished second (24:43.5), just behind Grand Valley State’s Caleb Futter (24:42.3). Freshman Lezawe Osterink had a strong showing, finishing third with a time of 24:46.5.
“Today, we are really just looking for the guys operating and racing like a team, like a unit, and I thought we did a pretty nice job of that,” MSU Head Men’s Cross Country Coach Aaron Simoneau said. “We did a really nice job of looking for each other in the middle of the race, racing in a pack and just racing as a team. Across the board, I thought we had a really nice day; I thought as a team we raced as well as we could have today. Patrick Byrnes was absolutely outstanding he’s made a lot of…
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