Freshmen Turn Heads For Cross Country at Gans Creek Classic

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Evan Kraus turned in the fastest 8K time by a male freshman in program history while Taylor Rorick became CU's first female freshman to lead the team in a race since 2018 to lead Creighton at the Gans Creek Classic on Friday morning in Columbia, Mo.

Marcos Gonzalez led the Bluejay men with a 22nd place finish, crossing the finish line in 24:43.0. That put him one second and two spots ahead of freshman teammate Kraus (24:44.0), who was making his 8K debut at the collegiate level. Fellow freshman Tommy Murray was CU's third-fastest runner with a clocking of 25:26.3 to place 59th in the race and also moving him into the top-20 of the program's 8K best list.

Rounding out the CU scorers were junior Ryan Montera (80th; 25:45.6) and sophomore Eli Moore (88th; 25:53.9). Montera was running with CU's top group until final 400 meters, losing 40 spots in the standings in the process. Another notable performance came from sophomore Cole Haith, who was 90th with a time of 25:54. That marked a 91 second improvement from the same race last year, when he took 210th.

"We faced tough conditions today with the heat and humidity," noted Creighton head coach Chris Gannon. "We had a really good day going on the men's side through 7K and then saw Ryan go down from the heat which impacted our results, but more importantly he's doing fine now. Individually, fantastic performances from Marcos and Evan in his first 8K."

Illinois won the 20-team men's race with a score of 46, eclipsing North Florida's 76 and Texas Tech's 102. Creighton closed in eighth place. The Illini were paced by senior Jack Roberts, who crossed the tape in 23:48.8 to defeat runner-up Vincent Koch of Texas Tech by 9.3 seconds. The men's race featured 203 competitors.

A Castle Pines, Colo., native, Rorick earned a 60th place finish as she crossed the line in 22:32.4. She became Bluejay freshman to lead the team in any race since Danielle Hotalling in 2018. Hotalling, who has been CU's top performer in all 23 races of her cross country career, did not compete on Friday.

Senior Morgan Koca took 83rd in 22:48.9, just ahead of sophomore Katherine Soule's 93rd place showing in 23:06.8. Rounding out the Bluejay scoring contingent were sophomores Carly Manchester (105th; 23:14.4) and Siobhan Stoll (108th; 23:16.1). Both women made huge strides from their finish a year ago on the same course, when Manchester placed 169th and Stoll 175th. One other freshman to keep an eye on is Scarlett Pearlman, who improved from 172nd to 144th over the second half of the race, including a team-best 3:54.7 split in the final 1K.

"It was even warmer for the ladies race, which had a big impact," continued Gannon. "The top group ran well and Taylor had a great first 6K. I'm looking forward to the next few weeks and then our home meet."

A pair of Texas Tech freshmen led the 235-participant women's race. Juliet Cherubet clocked a 20:16.4 time to out-run Anastacia Chepkorir's 20:39.0. Nebraska won the 23-team women's race with a team score of 86, besting host Missouri's 112. Creighton finished in 17th place.

Creighton returns to the course on Oct. 13 when it hosts the Platte River Rumble in Ashland, Neb. The women will race at 1 p.m., followed by the men 45 minutes later, at Olsson XC Course at Mahoney State Park.

Freshmen Turn Heads For Cross Country at Gans Creek Classic

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Players Mentioned

Marcos Gonzalez

Cole Haith

Danielle Hotalling

Morgan Koca

Evan Kraus

Carly Manchester

Ryan Montera

Eli Moore

Tommy Murray

Scarlett Pearlman

Taylor Rorick

Katherine Soule

Siobhan Stoll