OLIVET, Mich.— The Trine women's cross country team tied for fourth in the MIAA Saturday at Olivet College for the program's best conference finish ever.
Following a third-place result in the MIAA Jamboree last month, the Trine women's cross country team followed up with another program-best fifth-place outing at Olivet. Due to conference scoring, Trine tied for fourth overall. The Thunder had never finished higher than seventh in a single conference meet or overall since joining the MIAA in 2004.
Head Coach Zach Raber echoed this accomplishment by stating, "High scoring finish ever. Seventh was the highest we've ever been until now, so it's a big step forward."
Also making school history as an individual was sophomore Kyla Binfet (West Yellowstone, Mont./West Yellowstone). Binfet's 19th place performance in Saturday's championship race positioned her at 16th overall in the conference. With this, Binfet earned All-MIAA Second Team honors. She is the first women's cross country athlete from Trine to achieve the award.
"Kyla Binfet was just great today," confirmed Raber.
Kelsey Ortiz (Swanton, Ohio/Anthony Wayne) continued her impressive junior campaign, finishing second for Trine. Senior Courtney Forsythe (West Mansfield, Ohio/Benjamin Logan), and freshmen Samantha Stensland (Fishers, Ind./Hamilton Southeastern) and Lacie Piekarski (Spring Lake, Mich./Spring Lake) rounded out scoring for the Thunder, providing key depth.
The team's program-best showing and amount of returners has the coaches excited for the future.
Trine's women's cross country squad will next compete in the NCAA Division III Great Lakes Regional at Terre Haute, Indiana on November 14th.
Article courtesy Luke Fimreite, Trine University, Business Administration '16
