The Valparaiso University men’s and women’s cross country teams ended their regular seasons at the Bradley “Pink” Classic Friday afternoon. At the Classic, the Crusaders faced several Missouri Valley Conference schools, providing a small preview of the Conference championships in a couple weeks. Along with host Bradley, five other MVC schools raced at the meet alongside the Crusaders. Senior Kim Heiny (Burnettsville, Ind./Twin Lakes) led the women and sophomore Victor Fortin (East Peoria, Ill./Peoria Notre Dame) crossed first for the men.

How It Happened

• Fortin ran a 26:46.7, capturing his fastest time of the season. This is his first time under 27 minutes this year, trimming 24 seconds from his mark from the Notre Dame invite. He did not race last year at the event.
• Senior Sidney Noble (Powhatan, Va./Powhatan) finished six seconds after his teammate, ending the 8K in 26:52.5. After today, this is the veteran’s top time of 2017.
• Three runners finished just over 27 minutes, within 12 seconds of each other: junior Ben Zibricky (New Lenox, Ill./Lincoln Way Central) and freshmen Nate Izewski (Palatine, Ill./Palatine) and Dominic Paoletti (Monroe, Mich./Monroe St. Mary).
• Freshman Joey Black (O'Fallon, Ill./O'Fallon) and junior Tyler Grimes (Indianapolis, Ind./Perry Meridian) rounded out the results for the Brown and Gold.
• Heiny led the Valpo women for the fourth time this season, earning a 23:19.1 in the 6K race. She erased 59 seconds off her season’s top result in a 6K race.
• Sophomore Kate Mitchell (Algonquin, Ill./Huntley) earned her first second-place finish of the year for the Crusaders. She crossed the line at 23:43.6, deleting over two minutes from the previous 6K meet this year.
• Sophomore Katherine Germann (Cincinnati, Ohio Finneytown) ended the meet in 23:46.4 and freshman Sarah Caesar (Fox River Grove, Ill./Cary-Grove) nabbed a time of 23:51.3.
• Sophomore Celia McGhiey (Carmel, Ind./Carmel), freshman Kathleen Neal (Zionsville, Ind./Zionsville), sophomore Nicole Berneche (Glen Ellyn, Ill./Glenbard West), freshman Olivia Recker (Fishers, Ind./Hamilton Southeastern) and Taylor Justison (Chatham, Ill./Glenwood) finished the race in this respective order, all after one another.

Next Up

Valpo takes a week off from competition to gear up for the MVC Championships on Saturday, Oct. 28. Missouri State will host the event and welcome all The Valley’s institutions to take part, which is slated to begin at 10:30 a.m. CT.