Holland Reporter

Grand Valley State University's cross country teams secured podium finishes at the Michigan State Spartan Invite in East Lansing. The men's team, led by Koby Fraaza and Lauren Kiley, placed second in the collegiate 8k with 66 points. The women's team finished third in the college 6k with a score of 119.

Head coach Jerry Baltes commented on the team's performance: "This was a great opener for both our squads. It was great to get out there and bust the rust against some strong competition."

Four members of the men's squad finished in the top 20. Fraaza led the Lakers, finishing second overall with a time of 23:44.8. Owen Westerkamp and Báhozhóni Church followed, placing 13th and 14th with times of 24:11.8 and a personal-best 24:12.5, respectively. Redshirt-freshman Sebastian Ramirez took 19th place at 24:17.0 in his first collegiate race.

On the women's side, two athletes earned top-20 finishes while five were among the top-50 finishers. Kiley led her team by finishing tenth at 20:44.7. Allie Arnsman and Abigail VanderKooi came next, taking 20th and 22nd places with times of 21:04.3 and 21:05.6, respectively. Maggie O'Malley (21:32.9) and redshirt-freshman Natalie Mello (21:40.0) completed the top-50 for Grand Valley State.

Twenty-four Lakers made their collegiate debuts during these races, including Brendan Chapple and Karen Kiratu who raced for Grand Valley State for the first time this season. In total, fourteen Lakers set new personal-best times—ten men in the collegiate 8k and four women in the college 6k.

Baltes added, "We look forward to building fitness over the next few weeks to be ready for the next couple big races."

The teams will compete again on Friday, October 3 at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invite starting at 10:30 a.m., with further details available on gvsulakers.com.