The Kalamazoo College men's cross country team finished in seventh place at the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic AssociationJamboree Saturday afternoon in Holland, Mich.
Jordan Henning led the Hornet runners crossing the finish line in fourth place with a time of 25:44.
The Hornets' second fastest runner was Connor Vogt who finished in 40th place with a time of 28:01.
Andrew Feeley, Paul Tshele and Alexander Townsend were the final three runners who rounded out the top five for the Hornets.
"The way the men raced confirmed this as the best day our team--men and women combined--has had in the last two seasons," Head Coach Kristopher Koster said. "By three miles, we knew that they would finish the deal and earn the breakthrough result our team has been seeking for the last few years--they were just running with too much focus and tenacity not to hang in there all the way through the line."
Kalamazoo will travel to the Lansing Invitational on Oct. 9 for its next meet.
Coach's Notes
-Our seventh-place finish was our best team result since the 2012 MIAA Jamboree, three years and five days ago. Our top five averaged 46 seconds faster than at the 2014 MIAA Jamboree.
-Jordan Henning's fourth-place finish represented the highest placing by a Hornet at an MIAA meet since Ian Schmidt and Kory Kramer went 2-3 in the 1999 MIAA Championship Meet. He was the top senior in the meet, and his time was a six-second personal record (PR). He finished 15 places higher than his best result in six previous MIAA meets.
-Paul Tshele broke 30:00 and 29:00 for the first time, lopping 1:48 off his PR.
-Connor Vogt beat his PR from last year by seven seconds in his first 8km of 2015.
-Andrew Feeley ran the fourth-fastest time of his career, placing 20 spots higher than he did in this meet a year ago.
-Merrick Richardson cut 2:40 from his time at the Knight Invite two weeks ago to break 32:00, 31:00, and nearly 30:00 for the first time.
-Alec Sherrill ran his first 8km of the season in the third-fastest time of his career.