For the first time since 2014, Division II and MIAA schools flocked to Mules National Golf Course in Warrensburg for the Mule Run, the final race of the cross country regular season.
The Mules took fourth place out of seven teams while the Jennies finished eighth out of 10 teams. Both the Mules and Jennies placed a runner in the top-10.
The Mules and Jennies hosted the MIAA Championships in 2017, but this is the first installation of the Mule Run for many of the current runners.
“I really wish we could have conference here too,” sophomore Mariah Elmore said. “This is good because our course is one of the hardest that we’ve had this season other than KU. It’s better for training for conference and having our family and friends here really pushes us.”
Senior Amy Marx was the Jennies’ best finisher, picking up her first top-10 finish of the season in ninth place with a time of 22:55.84.
Elmore was the Jennies’ second-best finisher in 17th place out of 100 runners with a time of 23:24.76.
“My finish was good, but I definitely could have done a lot better,” Elmore said. “I kept a good pace throughout the race, but this is really just a great way to prepare for conference.”
Elmore said the race was a good chance to see their competition for the conference meet.
“This meet specifically had a lot of good teams, especially ones that will be at conference,” she said. “It was really good to see how we could run with them today.”
Mules sophomore Nick Victor’s sixth-place finish was the best of his Mules career and his first top-10 finish at UCM.
On the Mules side, sophomore Nick Victor ran alone in the lead pack for the majority of the race. He secured a team-best seventh-place finish, running the 8K course in 25:46.31.
“I thought I had a great race,” Victor said. “It was nice to come back and have a solid performance since I wasn’t able to a couple weeks ago.”
Five Mules runners were among the top-40 finishers with sophomore Jared Mentz in 23rd, junior Alex Philipps in 25th, senior Isaac Calvert in 31st and junior Ryan Skopec in 32nd.
“I thought the rest of the guys did good,” Victor said. “We had a race plan, we wanted to hit 5:20’s (mile times) the whole way and it worked well.”
Victor said the Mules have high expectations for their conference races.
“I think we’re shooting for a top-5 finish at conference,” he said. “You never know; I just think we’re in a great spot coming into conference.”
Victor said it was exciting to be back at home for a race.
“It’s awesome. It’s so nice to be back,” he said. “We got to run it for conference last year, so it was nice to come back and compete in front of the home crowd.”
Jennies sophomore Mariah Elmore picked up her best finish of the 2018 regular season with a 17th place finish Oct. 20 at the Mule Run at Mules National Golf Course.
Missouri Southern left everyone in the dust on the men’s side winning the team title convincingly by 43 points. The Lions placed four of the top-five runners, including individual winner Nickson Kiptoo, and had another round out the top-10.
Southwest Baptist took the team title in the women’s race with 52 points. Two Bearcat runners finished in the top-5. The individual champion in the women’s race was Claire McCune from Drury. She finished nearly 30 seconds ahead of second place with a time of 21:49.51.
With the regular season concluded, the Mules and Jennies will begin their postseason at the MIAA Championship at Emporia State.
Races are scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Nov. 3 at Jones Park Cross Country Course in Emporia, Kansas.
