APPLETON, Wisconsin – The Ripon men's and women's cross country programs began postseason racing on Saturday as the Red Hawks competed at the annual Midwest Conference Championships hosted by Lawrence at the Reid Golf Course.
The women earned a third-place finish, while the men came in fourth place. Both teams took third at the 2023 championships.
For the second consecutive year,
Matt Seeber was named the Elite 20 award recipient for men's cross country. The MWC Elite 20 Award recognizes the student-athlete with the highest grade-point average among participants in their sport's culminating championship or tournament event.
On the women's side,
Jenny Cortes (second place, 22:25.06) and
Gabby Allard (11th place, 23:17.97) both earned all-conference accolades for the second consecutive year. Additionally,
Joley Berger took 12th in 23:37.37 while
Kiki Sherman was the fourth Red Hawk to finish inside the top-20. She took 19th in 24:02.00.
This was the second consecutive top-four finish at the conference meet for Cortes, who took fourth last season. She now moves up to fourth all-time in the Ripon 6K list, while Allard moves up to ninth and Berger slides up to 15th. Sherman enters the all-time records, coming in at 20th place.
In the men's race,
Rainier Villanueva placed sixth in 25:31.58, while
Christian Kuwaye clocked in at 26:02.72 for a 12th place finish. Both runners repeated their All-MWC selections from a season ago – Villanueva catapults himself into fourth all-time in the Ripon record books, while Kuwaye moves up to 13th place all-time.
UP NEXT: Ripon hosts its only home meet of the fall next Thursday (November 7) as the Red Hawks host the Red Hawk Open at Tuscumbia Golf Course. The women's race begins at 3:15 p.m., while the men run at 4 p.m.
FOLLOW: Follow Ripon College Red Hawks Athletics on Facebook and @RiponRedHawks on Twitter for immediate updates, results and more. Go to riponredhawks.com for all information, releases and schedules.
