Pride close out September at Dutch Cross Country Open

PELLA, Iowa - Running in their third race of the season and final race of the month of September, the Clarke University cross country teams produced a sixth place team finish for the men with the women's team running three individuals, shy of enough for a team score.

The Pride women had senior Jaycie Franco, sophomore Bridget Bracy, and freshman Lexie Dukas where Dukas was able to produce a 6K time that was over a minute faster than her last race, finishing Friday evening's race with a 29:52.4 as Bracy ran an almost identical time as she did two weeks ago in Grinnell with a 27:28.5, and Franco led the CU women with her 28th place 25:18.5, 43 seconds faster than her time on Sept. 13.

In the men's race, Clarke was able to produce a sixth place score of 162 points led by junior Chesney Capron's 27:41.6, which was 11 seconds faster than his last 8K time as Drew Pate clocked in at 28:20.0, Bryce Kondos ran a 30:19.6, Eric Chatham was close behind at 30:29.6, and running his first race of the season, junior Cord Nietert rounded out the team times with a 31:13.5.

Pride cross country will be away from competition all of next week before having back-to-back weeks of races, starting with a trip to Columbia, Mo. for the Brian T. Simpson Invite on Saturday, Oct. 11.