EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Goshen College men's and women's cross country teams competed at the 2025 Auto Owners Spartan Invitational on Friday morning, hosted by Michigan State University. In a meet filled with numerous Division I schools, particularly programs from the Big Ten conference, the Goshen men came in 11th of 16. The women's team did not field enough runners to have a team score.

Men - 11th of 16
Duncan Kogei led the GC men with a 49th place finish out of 291 runners. With a time of 24:58.4, it is only the 16th time that a Goshen runner has ran under the 25:00 mark, and he becomes the eighth individual to do so. Kogei transferred from University of Rio Grande. He beat his first time as a Maple Leaf last weekend by more than 20 seconds. Kogei improved his position throughout the race, going from 67th at the 3k mark to 59th by the 5k and 49th by the 8k finish.

Mathew Keitany placed 94th with a time of 25:40.4. Jesse Bontrager had a strong showing in 141st place, coming in at 26:53.4. Jacob Friesen placed 170th at 27:27.0 and Isaiah Beiter wasn't far behind in 175th place with a time of 27:33.9.

Michigan State won the meet with a score of 28 - putting their top five runners in first, fifth, sixth, seventh and ninth place. Goshen had a score of 367, placing ahead of Crossroads League opponent Grace. The Lancers had 381 points and came in 13th.

Women - No Team Score
Kassandra Ortega made strides from her first race as a Leaf a week ago. She led Goshen by finishing 142nd overall out of 255 runners. Like Kogei, her time of 23:43.1 in the 6k race was more than 20 seconds faster than her IWU Twilight Classic time.

Presley Allen came in 163rd place, and also improved on her time last week, coming in at 24:30.6. Caroline Jelimo came in 205th place at 26:23.3 and Ella Armstrong was 215th in a time of 27:34.7.

Northwestern won among the women's teams with an incredible score of 18. They had the first, second, fourth, fifth and sixth-place finishers.

Goshen has a few weeks off until their next meet on Friday, October 3 at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invite.