8/25/2023 - Normal, IL: Both the men and women cross country teams returned to racing on Friday. The Hawks traveled south to Heartland Community College for their early season relay invite. The Heartland Relays is a partner mile relay race with the women running three miles each while the men run four. Last year at this invite, the Hawks only had eight men and three women ready to race. This year, there were 12 men and eight women ready to race!

Women
With eight women racing, the Hawks had four pairings.

Ada Saletnik and Lilly Alberts led the day for the Hawks. They set a new meet record for six miles running in 36:00, beating the old one of 37:18. Both Saletnik and Alberts averaged 6:00 per mile. They looked strong in their first race and will look to continue the consistency going forward.

Kasey Ledinsky and Isabella Wojciechowski came in sixth place with a time of 40:13. Ledinsky averaged 6:50 per mile while Wojciechowski averaged 6:41. They were second among DIII teams. Claudia Wojciechowski and Brianna Ruiz came in tenth place with a time of 41:02 and were the fifth DIII team. Wojciechowski averaged 6:14 per mile and Ruiz averaged 7:17. The fourth pairing for the Hawks was Araxi Boghossian and Kaili Decker. Boghossian averaged 8:15 per mile while Decker averaged 6:50.

This was a great start to the season and the women look stronger now than they did this time last year when they went on to be National Champions.


Men
Twelve men lined up for the men making six pairings.

Jason Schmidt and Albert Szewczyk led for the men in 41:35 with Owen Whelan and Marcos Jaimes not far behind in 42:02. Schmidt averaged 5:22 per mile while Szewczyk averaged 5:09 as they came in second place and first among DIII schools. Whelan averaged 5:20 while Jaimes averaged 5:14, which was good for fourth and second among DIII schools behind their teammates.

Jose Morales and Konrad Jakubowski were the third team to finish for the Hawks in 44:06 with Matt Trybus and Harry Carr closely behind in 44:44. Morales averaged 5:32 per mile, Jakubowski 5:29, Trybus 5:29, and Carr 5:43.

The fifth and sixth teams for the Hawks were Carter Swearingen and Jose Guzman along with Christopher Gama and Edwin Amaro. Swearingen and Guzman finished in 49:34 and averaged 5:49 per mile and 6:29 respectively. Unfortunately, Gama got injured a little over halfway through the race which prevented him and Amaro from finishing with an official time. Amaro averaged 6:47 per mile on the miles he did run.

This was a vastly different outcome compared to last season for the men who look to improve upon their fifth place finish last season.


The Hawks race next on Friday, September 1st, at the Rockford Invite.