NORTH MANCHESTER, Ind. -- The Trine women's cross country team opened the 2016 race season with a second-place finish in Manchester University's Hokum Karem event Thursday evening.
Thunder runners combined the earn the team 17 points. Scores were added by totaling up the placement from the top three pairs from each school, with the lowest total earning the victory. The Hokum Karem format features pairs of runners alternating one-mile laps around the course. Each runner in the pairing runs three miles for a combined six-mile distance.
Kyla Binfet (West Yellowstone, Mont. / West Yellowstone) and Lacie Piekarski (Spring Lake, Mich. / Spring Lake) earned a fourth-place finish to lead Trine runners. The duo combined for a time of 36:56.9 to average a 6:09 mile pace. Each runner closed the race with their best mile time.
Hannah Blystone (Carmel, Ind. / Carmel)\ paired with Samantha Stensland (Fishers, Ind. / Hamilton Southeastern) to place sixth. Blystone's final mile was run in 5:56.7, the second-best mile run by any Thunder runner in the race. The sophomores finished with a time of 37:10.5 overall.
Kelsey Ortiz (Swanton, Ohio / Anthony Wayne) finished with Trine's best average-time as she teamed up with Heather Richardson (Fort Wayne, Ind. / South Side) to place seventh. Ortiz's final mile time of 5:55.1 was Trine's best of the day. Ortiz and Richardson notched a time of 37:48.7 overall.
Team standings are listed below.
1. Manchester - 10
2. Trine - 17
3. Huntington - 18
Click Here for Complete Results.
The Thunder returns to action Friday, Sep. 9 at the Indiana Wesleyan University Twilight Classic. The women's race is scheduled for 5 p.m.
