AUGUSTA, Kan. - The Friends University Men's and Women's Cross Country team started off their season on Saturday (Sept. 2) at the JK Gold Classic hosted by Wichita State University at the Raft Golf Course outside of Augusta, Kansas.

The Falcon Women won the college division of the race, besting KCAC opponent Southwestern College, along with Butler County Community College and NCAA Division II foes Newman and Emporia State University.

The Men's Team placed fifth in the college division despite holding out four of their top runners in this first early season race of the season.

Christa Follette was the top runner for the women in this meet for the second year in a row as she ran a 4K personal best of 14:57, which is a 17 second improvement from her time last year.

Isaac Sprague led the men's team over the 6K course with a time of 20:21, representing a 32-second improvement from his time in 2016.

Friends University Results

Women (4000m – 2.5 Miles)

21st – Christa Follette – 14:57 – (17 second improvement from last season)

42nd – Nicole Ballard – 15:23

50th – Kara Zahariades – 15:46

58th – Grace Camp – 15:57 – (27 second improvement from last season)

71st – Kayla Allen – 16:18

74th – Bethany Vonada – 16:24 – (44 second improvement from last season)

81st – Miranda Tenove – 16:41 – (91 second improvement from last season)

85th – Payton Reaves – 17:03 – (42 second improvement from last season)

MEN (6000m – 3.75 Miles)

52nd – Isaac Sprague – 20:21 – (32 second improvement from last season)

58th – Damien Hiser – 20:40

70th – Brett Martin – 21:08 – (21 second improvement from last season)

73rd – Reno Ferris – 21:38

84th – Jonathan Pettyjohn – 23:13

85th – Noah Barajas – 23:34

85TH – Graeham Jarvis – 23:55

"I am very pleased with the way our women ran this last weekend in what turned out to be a small, but highly competitive race that featured NCAA Division I teams from the Big 12, American and SEC Conference," said first year Head Coach Jason Parr. "We have had some great workout days and that showed in the results as seven athletes had big personal bests on this course compared to last season."

"We made the decision to sit out some of our top men's runners in this first race, so I am excited to see what they can accomplish when we are running at full strength in a few weeks. The women competed well for the first meet of the season, but our ultimate goal is to keep improving week by week in an effort to defend our conference title and make the trip to Vancouver for Nationals."

Full Team Results:  https://www.tfrrs.org/results/xc/11718.html

The Cross Country team will not be competing competitively this coming weekend as they will be taking part in a community service project by running in the Race for Freedom 5K to promote awareness of the Human Trafficking issue in the Wichita area. The Falcons will be back in competitive action on September 16th in Joplin, Missouri for the Missouri Southern State University Stampede.