The Wright State cross country team shined at the Queen City Invitational in Mason Friday, with career performances by seniors Dan Shafer and Rachel Janson.
Shafer improved on his time from last week’s meet, setting a new men’s 5k school record of 15:15.
“It is a huge honor to be a school record holder for WSU,” Shafer said. “I’ve had a lot of ups and downs in my career and to finally begin putting things together this season is very encouraging.”
Distance coach Rick Williamson said ample training and working out was the main focus going into this week’s meet and the team endeavored to make a statement with strong results.
“We knew, based on our workout earlier in the week, going into the meet we would race at a higher level,” Williamson said.
The women’s team was led Janson, who finished 25th in 19:05 – the highest she has ever placed in her cross country career.
“The course looked tough with a lot of rolling hills, but it was real fast to run on,” Janson said. “My main goal was to go out fast the first mile and I did, which really helps my overall time.”
Senior Brandon Graves was right behind Shafer and finished the race at 15:44.
“Compared to last week’s meet, the team ran much better,” Graves said. “Collectively the team ran a far more aggressive race than the first meet and there were a lot of PR’s set across the board.”
The team will head to Cedarville, Ohio for the Friendship Invitational Saturday, Sept. 21 for their next meet.
“We fully expect to continue to progress with each meet,” Williamson said. “We will run our best in the championship races at the end of the season.”
