MARION, Ind. – Grace's cross country teams enjoyed an impressive display at the 2025 Crossroads League Championships on Friday morning.
The Lancers produced strong times on a wet, windy course with Grace's women finishing as the runners-up, and the men placing eighth.
Grace's women concluded with a team time of 1:52:03, beating out Marian by three seconds. The time was Grace's fastest team time in a Crossroads League Championship race (6k).
The women had two top-10 finishers, who both earned All-League recognition. Cece Mitchell earned sixth place with a time of 21:51.7. Esther Kleber was eighth at 21:58.8.
Both of Mitchell's and Kleber's times landed in the top-10 fastest 6k times in team history. Mitchell's mark was the third-fastest league championship time in team history, and Kleber's was fourth.
Morgan Welch finished 16th overall, crossing the finish line in 22:31.5. The next three runners for Grace finished back-to-back-to-back, including Leah Emch in 22nd (22:50.5), Grace Pettit in 23rd (22:51.2) and Grace Geller in 24th (22:51.3), edging out a pair of Marian runners by seconds apiece.
Addi Dewey raced well, producing a time of 22:59.6 to finish as the squad's seventh runner, and Cassandra Cross was not far behind (23:08.6).
On the men's squad, Grace was led by a pair of seniors. Brady Hunsberger paved the way with a race of 25:52.7, good for 30th in the race. Cole Johnston was 47th overall at 26:11.3.
Austin Wilson (26:32.3) and Hunter Quadlin (26:38.2) finished within range of each other, and Reid Sollars also ran sub-27 (26:57.0).
John Young produced Grace's sixth time at 27:13.1, and Ty McPhatter (27:39.9) and Gavin Sowles (27:49.9) were next in line.
Grace's men earned a team time of 2:12:11, the sixth-fastest team time in a CL Championship race for the Lancers.
"Our women ran numerous PRs today. Even without a few of our top-seven runners, they still came away as conference runners-up," said Grace head coach Brian Dewey. "Our men tried to put themselves in a position to push the middle of the conference today but just didn't have it as the race developed."
Grace's women will next compete at the NAIA National Championships; the team is ranked No. 9 currently in the NAIA Top 25.
RACE RESULTS
