EAST LANSING, Mich. – The Trine University men's cross country team was in action on Friday morning in the 2023 Auto Owners Spartan Invitational at Forest Akers East Golf Course (hosted by Michigan State University). The host Spartans were the top team at the event with the Thunder scoring a seventh-place team finish.
In the 8K event, the Trine men were led by sophomore Ryan Hoopingarner with a time of 25:30.4 to place 30th overall. He took eight seconds off of his previous best collegiate time. Hoopingarner was sixth among NCAA DIII athletes in competition.
The second-best finisher for the Thunder was junior Joseph Packard. He was 67th overall with a time of 26:20.5. Packard's classmate Matthew Edison was 78th to cross the finish line with a time of 26:29.9, just missing his personal best mark.
The final two scoring members for Trine included junior Gehrig Longe and senior Jacob Myers. Longe was 82nd overall with a time of 26:43.4 and Myers just behind in 83rd at 26:45.9. Pushers for the team were freshmen Clay Batio and Max VanHuis. As the sixth and seventh Thunder student-athletes to finish the event, Batio held a time of 27:03.5 (91st) and VanHuis 27:05.5 (94th).
The next event on the schedule is another hosted by an NCAA DI institution, the Louisville Invite at EP Tom Sawyer Park (hosted by the University of Louisville) on Saturday, September 30 beginning at 10 a.m.
