By: Jeff DeGraw
The Joliet Junior College cross country teams both placed fifth at the North Central Invite this past Friday at St James Farm in Warrenville, IL.
Nathan Ciarlette paced the men's team with a ninth-place finish. He covered the 8K course in 25:31, an all-time best for the distance in JJC cross country history. The previous best was set in 2021 at the NJCAA Division III National Championships as Hunter Phillips ran 25:39 in winning the individual title.
Gavin Carlson was the second Wolf across the line, running 27:06.
"It was a little better this week as a group, but we still need to be better, especially with our number three on back to seven," Wolves coach
Jeff DeGraw said. "But considering what our month of training has been, we are fine right now. We have done so much strength work for a month, we will now continue to get faster as we progress through the season. It was also a good meet for the freshmen to experience their first 8K race."
The women were led by
Gabriela Zid over the 6K course. She was followed by
Allison Behounek and
Vivienne Forte.
"Gabby was running well but then fell in the woods and that cost her some valuable time," DeGraw said. "Overall, the women ran better than the previous week and this was a longer race. If you take their times at three miles all ran faster than the previous meet, which was our goal."
The Wolves will be at the Olivet Nazarene Invitational on September 19
th at Aspen Ridge Golf Course for their next meet.
