School record falls as Pride cross country wraps up September at Midwest Intercollegiate

BOURBONNAIS, Ill. - It was a good day to be a Pride cross country runner as the women's team finished in fifth place at the Midwest Intercollegiate on Friday afternoon while senior Claire Ronnebaum broke the school record with her fourth place time of 19:02.

The old record was set by Kayla Anderson in 2016 at 19:06 as Ronnebaum shattered her personal best time to best the record by six seconds as she has never posted a sub-20 time before today. 

It was a strong day overall for the women's team with their fifth place finish as Rory Bickler also set a personal best time with a 14th place 19:19.1, which finishes as the new fourth-fastest time in program history. Ricar Mends was the third Pride runner to set a new personal best time to finish third on the team and 21st overall with her 19:54 time.

Marina Mercado and Lydia Radeke rounded out the team scoring in the race with 22:11.4 and 23:10.8 time respectively to finish off a good day for CU on the women's side.

For the men, only four runners competed on Friday so the Pride didn't qualify for the team results. Emmett Schwartzhoff had the top time for Clarke with a 30:05.5, just three seconds off of his personal best 8K time. Jimmy Slowik earned a new personal best time, outpacing his previous low time by a minute to finish at 31:00.7.

Brennan Shelton (31:30.6) and Kole Haverly (31:54.7) finished off the men's times as Haverly improved on his 8K time in his freshman campaign by nearly a minute.

Clarke cross country will have next week off before returning to race action on Oct. 2 when they head to Waverly, Iowa for the Dan Houston Invite.