Grace’s Heather Plastow, Mallory Hiatt and Bryan Hernandez-Rios all were named All-Crossroads League at the league championships Friday evening. Photo provided

By Josh Neuhart
Grace College Sports Information

MARION – Grace’s cross country teams both enjoyed a fifth-place showing in the 2020 Crossroads League Championships on Friday.

The Lancers, both newly receiving votes in the NAIA poll, ran well in the highly competitive race.

A trio of Lancers were named to the All-Crossroads League Team, including Mallory Hiatt and Heather Plastow for the women as well as Bryan Hernandez-Rios for the men.

Hiatt and Plastow impressed for the Lady Lancers. Hiatt placed ninth in her first collegiate championship race. Her time of 18:45 made her the second-fastest freshman in the conference.

Plastow was just four seconds behind Hiatt (18:49) to grab 11th place.

Elizabeth Moore was third on the team with a time of 20:49. Makenzie Adams (20:56), Kaelyn Johnson (21:03) and Weslea Arthur (21:12) rounded out Grace’s top-six finishers.

On the men’s side, Grace’s top-seven runners were all freshmen or sophomores. Hernandez-Rios finished in 15th place (26:02) to earn All-League recognition.

Freshman Macallister Cheek (26:43) was next in line for Grace in 26th place, and sophomores Dimitri Margaritidis (26:55) and Logan Rufenacht (27:01) finished in quick succession.

Sophomore Isaac Beatty was fifth for the Lancers at 27:18. A pair of freshmen rounded out the top-seven finishers in Hayden Mullett (27:30) and Dakota Ames (27:41).

“We’re so proud of both teams. We knew, regardless of the results today, that the character, attitude and spirit of these men and women is top-notch,” said Grace head coach Jake Poyner. “Their excellent preparation all season long showed today, particularly in a conference with tremendous teams and competition. We’ll continue to train and do some time-trials on the track before taking a respite and looking toward the upcoming track season.”

To see complete race results, click here.

Friday’s race officially wraps up the fall season for the Lancers. The distance squads will compete in the track season, which begins in January.