It was a rough day for both the Wayland girls’ and boys’ cross-country teams in the first O-K Gold Conference jamboree Wednesday at the South Christian Athletic Complex.
Both teams settled for sixth place, beating out only Wyoming in the seven-team fields. The boys compiled 188 points while Grand Rapids Christian won it with 36 and East Grand Rapids had 45. The girls finished with a team total of 141, only four points away from South Christian in fifth and 19 from Middleville Thornapple Kellogg in fourth. East Grand Rapids dominated the competition, sweeping third through eighth places in the race and finishing with 25 points. GR Christian was second with 55.
The Lady Wildcats had reasonable success in earlier invitationals, but once again the O-K Gold is proving to be one of the most talented cross-country leagues in the state.
Freshman Madelyn Frens of Grand Rapids Christian was individual medalist with an astonishing time of 18:42.88.
To the surprise of no one, junior Rylee Cronkright led Wayland with a 19th-place finish in 21:19.39 over the five-kilometer course. She was followed by Gracie Hasse in 32nd, Zoe Antel in 33rd, freshman Haylee Jasinski in 65th and freshman Serena VanHouten, 83rd.
Missing from the lineup of Lady Wildcat runners was Naomi Oosterhouse.
Sophomore Elijah Gamelin led the Wildcat boys with a time of 19:24.74, good for 42nd place. Ian Russell was 47th in 19:39.09, Jarod Geerligs 68th, Andrew VanBaal 76th and Steven Mosher 90th.
Both Wildcat teams will compete Saturday in the Cedar Springs Invitational.
