WILMINGTON, Ohio – The Wilmington College men's cross country team hosted the sixth annual JennaStrong Fall Classic on campus on Friday afternoon.
Thirty-six teams showed up to compete in the seven named after former Fightin' Quaker Jenna Parlette, who collapsed while leading a race at Franklin College in 2013 and passed away several days later. Wilmington finished ninth at the classic with 277 points. NCAA Division I institution Miami University (Ohio) won the race with 58 team points while Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) member Ohio Northern University was the highest finishing NCAA Division III school, placing fourth with 131 points.
Evan Whitaker, the reining OAC Men's Cross Country Runner of the Week, finished 20th individually with a time of 25:44.4. The mark was the fastest time run by a Fightin' Quaker freshman in program history. Gage Clemens was the next Quaker to cross the finish line, doing so in 26:37.2 for 56th place. Cameron Phelps finished just over 20 seconds behind Clemens for a 74th place finish. Ryan Honkomp (27:09.2) and Jacob Whitaker (27:21.4) rounded out Wilmington's top five finishers.
"The men had a great race for the third week in a row," Head Coach Ron Combs said. "Along with Evan [Whitaker]'s spectacular performance, we had a lot of personal-best times including by Gage Clemens and Ryan Honkomp."
Makorobondo Salukombo won the event with a time of 24:24.3. Ian McVey of Ohio Northern was the top NCAA Division III individual, finishing second with a time of 24:40.5.
Wilmington will have a week off before competing in the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) Championships on Oct. 27.
