Mends and Miller lead the way for the Pride at Heart Conference Championships

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – The third trip for the men and second for the women out to Cedar Rapids, the Clarke University cross country teams earned 11th and sixth place finishes at the Heart of America Conference Championships on Saturday.

It was the Pride women taking home a sixth place finish out of the 14 competing teams as they were led by the personal best time of 19:28.9 by Ricar Mends. That time earned Mends a 10th place finish, which also earned her a spot on the All-Conference First Team with the top-10 times making the first team.

Rory Bickler and Claire Ronnebaum finished in the top-25 individually as they ended up in back-to-back spots in 21st and 22nd. Bickler finished with a 19:48.7 in 21st while Ronnebaum was just four seconds behind at 19:52.6.

The team score for CU was rounded out by Marina Mercado's 21:28.7 for a 54th place finish and Lydia Radeke's 23:21.2 for an 84th place finish. Halle Boldt suited up for Clarke for the race as she had the sixth best time for the women at a 24:34.0 and a 97th place finish.

Clarke's men finished in 11th place out of 14 as Daniel Miller topped the leaderboard for CU at a 27:45.5 finishing time for 44th place.

The trio of Benjamin Vasquez, Emmett Schwartzhoff, and Kole Haverly all finished with personal best times as that makes it the third-straight race for Vasquez and Schwartzhoff topping previous best times. Vasquez ended the race with a 27:45.5, his first sub-28, Schwartzhoff got his first sub-29 with a 28:27.6, and Haverly earned his first sub-30 with a 29:55.3.

Jimmy Slowik's 30:20.2 rounded out the team score for the Pride as Brennan Shelton ran a 31:00.2 as the sixth member of the team's race.

The Pride will now wait to see if any of their times will be good enough to qualify for the NAIA National Championship race in Fort Vancouver, Wash. on Nov. 19.