The Wayland girls’ varsity cross-country team placed fifth in a 17-team field Saturday at the Otsego Bulldog Invitational.
Grand Rapids Christian, an O-K Gold Conference rival, won the meet with 66 team points and host Otsego was runner-up with 96, followed by Forest Hills Eastern and Holland Christian. Wayland accumulated 155 team points.
Three Lady Wildcat runners, sophomore Rylee Cronkright, senior Maddie Whitney and sophomore foreign exchange student Mie Tornbjerg, earned medals for placing among the top 25 individual runners. Cronkright was fifth, Whitney seventh and Tornbjerg 23rd.
Cronkright and Whitney both broke the 20-minute barrier with their best times of the season. Cronkright crossed the finish line in 19:04.3, Whitney checked in at 19:15.0, among the best times in school history. Tornbjerg barely missed break 20 minutes, finishing in 20:03.
Freshman Naomi Oosterhouse and junior Zoe Antel rounded out the Wildcats’ scoring.
The Wildcat boys’ team finished 15th among 16 teams entered. Freshman Elijah Gamelin led the ‘Cats with a time of 18:30.8, edging senior teammate Ethan Killips by about two and a half seconds. They were followed in the scoring by Ian Russell, Jared Geerlings and Jacob Jelsema.