Jayhawks finish second at Rim Rock Classic
LAWRENCE, Kan. – The Kansas men’s and women’s cross country teams each took second place Saturday morning at the Rim Rock Collegiate Classic at Rim Rock Farm in Lawrence, Kansas. Redshirt junior Alaina Schroeder was KU’s top finisher in the women’s race, coming in third overall, and junior Michael Melgares took second in the men’s race to lead the Jayhawks. UMKC secured first place in both the women’s 6K and men’s 8K races.
Melgares made a great display of his finishing kick to squeeze past UMKC’s Quinlan Moll in the closing meters of the race to earn the second-place finish. Neck-and-neck in the final straightaway, Melgares was able to cross the line two-tenths of a second earlier than Moll, posting a time of 24:52.4.
Sophomore Avery Hale was the second Jayhawk to cross the line in the men’s race, finishing in fifth among collegiate competitors at 25:06.4. Rounding out the scoring for KU’s men were senior Carson Vickroy, freshman Chace Hale, and redshirt freshman George Letner, placing 12th, 16th and 17th, respectively. The Jayhawk men finished with 49 points, while the UMKC men took the top spot with 31.
The women’s 6K race started off the morning, with Schroeder taking the third-place finish with a time of 21:32.5, behind UMKC runners Mia Jerman and Sarah Fogarty. The top-three finishers stayed close to one another the entirety of the race until the final 400 meters when the two UMKC runners were able to break free to finish seconds ahead of Schroeder. Finishing fifth and sixth overall, Jayhawk senior Hannah Dimmick and redshirt sophomore Lauren Harrell clocked in at 22:02.5 and 22:13.2, respectively, to finish second and third for the KU women.
Sophomore Riley Cooney was the eighth-place finisher, crossing the line at 22:26.5, and redshirt freshman Catherine Liggett rounded out the KU women’s scoring with a 23rd-place finish, with a time of 23:16.8. The Jayhawk women finished nine points behind the first-place UMKC squad, totaling 45 points on the day.
“I was excited that UMKC did what they did,” head coach Stanley Redwine said. “They came in, they had their vision and they wanted to win. Most importantly, we have to get better. We have to perform better, we have to believe we can perform better and just go out there and do it.”
Up next, the Jayhawks will travel to Louisville, Kentucky to compete in the Pre-National Invitational on October 14. The meet will be run at E.P. Tom Sawyer Park with the women’s race set to being at 9 a.m. CDT.
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