XC Concludes Season at National Meet

The Barclay College cross country season wrapped up on November 12th in Jackson, Mississippi at Belhaven University. For the second consecutive season, both sophomore Noah Camp (Winfield, Kans.) and junior Katy Vanderploeg (Haviland, Kans.) qualified for the meet. Though they took on a tough, hilly course with an uphill finish, it was a great conclusion to a fantastic season. In a more competitive field compared to last year, Vanderploeg finished her 5k race in a time of 23:09, which was good for 27th place. Camp, on the other hand, secured 11th place in the 8k with a time of 29:39.

“Training through an entire season on your own is not an easy feat,” said first year head coach Whitney Kregar. “Since Noah and Katy make up the entire team, they had to push themselves day in and day out with no other teammates to set the bar.”

Heading into the season, expectations were high for both runners. One year ago, Camp finished as a National Christian College Athletic Association Division II All-American by finishing in the top five and Vanderploeg was gaining a ton of confidence and momentum by the end of the season. In their first meet of this season, both runners easily qualified for the national meet while running at a meet hosted by Sterling College (Sterling, Kans.). From that juncture on, they used meets hosted by Tabor College (Hillsboro, Kans.), Bethel College (Newton, Kans.) and Southwestern College (Winfield, Kans.) to hone for the national meet.

“They are both a joy to be around and made my first season as head coach a fun one,” added Kregar. “We all look forward to another strong year next year with even more athletes to keep building this program.”