Trozzi in Top 20 for WPU at Grinnell Invite
Grinnell–The Statesmen cross country teams overcame a late schedule change and competed at the Grinnell Invitational Saturday.
The William Penn men tied for 11th out of 16 teams with 332 points, while Central won the team title with 26 points. The women’s squad was unable to post a score, while Truman was the top crew with 31 points.
Daniel Sunvold of Central was the men’s individual champion with a time of 26:50.9 on the 8K course, while Kat Stai of Coe took the women’s 6K race crown in 23:37.6.
Vernon Trozzi (Fr., Hesperia, Calif., Exercise Science) led the navy and gold as he placed 19th (out of 175 runners) with a time of 27:50.2.
Axel Vazquez (Fr., Wray, Colo.) was next in 96th place at 31:14.3, while Terry Jackson (Sr., Houston, Alaska, Biology) had a time of 32:02.4 to be 110th.
William De Jesus (Fr., Homestead, Fla., Biology) finished in 115th place (32:17.4), and Jack Miller (So., Oskaloosa, Iowa) was 118th at 32:31.3 to round out the Statesmen scoring.
Julian Davis (Jr., Palmer, Alaska, Mechanical Engineering) narrowly missed the cut, taking 119th at 32:41.1. David Williams (Sr., Victor, Iowa, Secondary Education) guided a group of other navy and gold harriers as he crossed the line in 34:35.7 for 143rd place.
Leading the women’s team was Michaela Kmiec (Fr., Centerville, Texas, Exercise Science) who was 47th out of 136 female competitors at 27:02.5.
Talaysia Douver (So., Lakewood, Calif.) took the runner-up spot for WPU in 55th at 27:27.3, and Zena Cohuo (So., Carrollton, Texas, Exercise Science) was 69th at 28:03.1.
“We are in a tough training block right now, but the athletes raced well,” Head Coach Sean Gosewisch said. “The men kept pushing throughout and continue to do better as a team. Due to an unfortunate last-minute schedule issue that forced us to race Saturday instead of Friday, we were unable to field a full women’s team, but the athletes who did race worked very well together.”
“Everyone will benefit from a bye week and a solid two-week training block,” Gosewisch added.
Next Up: William Penn takes two weeks off, returning to action on Saturday, October 5 to compete in the Brissman/Lundeen Invitational hosted by Augustana in Rock Island, Ill.
