Friday, September 15
East Lansing, Mich.
Michigan State University
vs
Spartan Invitational
Photo by: Matthew Mitchell
Cross Country Teams Win Out on Home Turf at Spartan Invitational
9/15/2023 12:23:00 PM | Cross Country
EAST LANSING, MICH. - Both Cross Country teams claimed the victories at the Spartan Invitational presented by Auto-Owners Insurance as the women claimed their first win of the season behind senior Katie Osika's race win while the men start their season victorious in each of the first two meets for the first time since 2019.
"Think they were both just first steps for us," Director of Cross Country and Track & Field Lisa Breznau said. "We're coming in with expectations built off of last year for both genders, and so we're trying to focus on things we have control over right now, sort of rip the Band-Aid off kind of moment and I thought both genders did a really great job of that."
For the second time in as many meets on the 2023 season, each of MSU's scorers finished in the top-10. This time out it was senior Alex Penski that led the Spartans on the 8K course at Forest Akers East Golf Course, finishing second overall at 24:43.8, a personal-best for the Holt, Mich. native in his season debut. Grad senior Josh Smith followed closely behind, posting a PB of his own at 24:43.3. Josh's brother Aden Smith trailed him, finishing fifth while sophomores Jack Pennewell and Andrew Lane rounded out MSU's scoring contingent in eighth and 10th respectively.
"We were just looking for guys to be engaged, guys to get in the run and run like a team and I thought we did a really nice job of that," Head Men's Cross Country Coach Aaron Simoneau said.
On the women's side, each of the five scorers finished in the top-eight while 12 total Spartans finished in the top-16. Osika picked up right where she left off in her All-American season last year, outpacing the competition by eight seconds, crossing the finish line for her first career race win at 20:54.4. Junior Makenna Veen finished on the podium in third while last year's Spartan Invite winner, junior Kaitlyn Hynes, finished in sixth, followed by senior Grace Molloy in seventh and freshman Meghan Beute who placed eighth in her first race in a Spartan uniform.
"It's Spartan Invite and a Spartan has to win so I had to dig a little deeper to get around them and it tended to work out," said Osika.
Unattached runners also showed promise for what's to come in the near future for the Spartans, as demonstrated namely by junior Andrew Nolan who won the Men's 8K race overall with a blitzing time of 24:39.7. Freshman Moses Osterink, who finished second overall in his debut last time out at the Jeff Drenth Memorial 5K on Sept. 1, finished fifth and was the first freshman finisher in the race. The season-opening race winner in freshman Michael Hegarty finished 11th overall.
Next, the Spartans will line up with heavier competition in some of the best teams in the nation at the Virginia Invitational in Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday, Sept. 23.
"Think they were both just first steps for us," Director of Cross Country and Track & Field Lisa Breznau said. "We're coming in with expectations built off of last year for both genders, and so we're trying to focus on things we have control over right now, sort of rip the Band-Aid off kind of moment and I thought both genders did a really great job of that."
For the second time in as many meets on the 2023 season, each of MSU's scorers finished in the top-10. This time out it was senior Alex Penski that led the Spartans on the 8K course at Forest Akers East Golf Course, finishing second overall at 24:43.8, a personal-best for the Holt, Mich. native in his season debut. Grad senior Josh Smith followed closely behind, posting a PB of his own at 24:43.3. Josh's brother Aden Smith trailed him, finishing fifth while sophomores Jack Pennewell and Andrew Lane rounded out MSU's scoring contingent in eighth and 10th respectively.
"We were just looking for guys to be engaged, guys to get in the run and run like a team and I thought we did a really nice job of that," Head Men's Cross Country Coach Aaron Simoneau said.
On the women's side, each of the five scorers finished in the top-eight while 12 total Spartans finished in the top-16. Osika picked up right where she left off in her All-American season last year, outpacing the competition by eight seconds, crossing the finish line for her first career race win at 20:54.4. Junior Makenna Veen finished on the podium in third while last year's Spartan Invite winner, junior Kaitlyn Hynes, finished in sixth, followed by senior Grace Molloy in seventh and freshman Meghan Beute who placed eighth in her first race in a Spartan uniform.
"It's Spartan Invite and a Spartan has to win so I had to dig a little deeper to get around them and it tended to work out," said Osika.
Unattached runners also showed promise for what's to come in the near future for the Spartans, as demonstrated namely by junior Andrew Nolan who won the Men's 8K race overall with a blitzing time of 24:39.7. Freshman Moses Osterink, who finished second overall in his debut last time out at the Jeff Drenth Memorial 5K on Sept. 1, finished fifth and was the first freshman finisher in the race. The season-opening race winner in freshman Michael Hegarty finished 11th overall.
Next, the Spartans will line up with heavier competition in some of the best teams in the nation at the Virginia Invitational in Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday, Sept. 23.
Players Mentioned
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