Lansing Sun

Michigan State University's cross country teams achieved a sweep at the 43rd-annual Spartan Invitational, presented by Auto-Owners Insurance, held at the Forest Akers East Golf Course on Friday morning.

The event schedule was adjusted due to projected warm weather, with the women's collegiate 6K race starting at 9 a.m. and the men's 8K race following at 9:40 a.m.

"I think we evaluate success on how we behaved as a team, the choices we made, competitiveness," said Lisa Breznau, Director of Cross Country and Track & Field. "But really are they making the right decisions to stay competitive as a group and just help one another along. It's a long season and just being aware of that. Today is a starting point not an ending point and just encouraging them that we are growing from here. I think on the men's and women's side what we saw was great but not ending here."

The Michigan State women secured victory with 28 points, narrowly edging out Grand Valley State's 31 points. Sophia Lucki led the Spartans with a time of 21:36.1, followed by Eleanor Kendall in fourth place with a time of 21:39.8; both athletes achieved personal bests in the 6K race.

Additional top finishes for MSU included Taylor Pangburn (6th, 21:45.6), Olivia Millen (7th, 21:52.2), and Taylor Ewert (8th, 21:56.6). Freshmen Madison Osterburg and Morgan Brown ran unattached but delivered strong performances; Brown finished in 14th place with a time of 22:11.7 while Osterburg placed 15th with a time of 22:15.7.

On the men's side, Michigan State emerged victorious with 23 points against Grand Valley State's second-place finish with 41 points. Alexander Penski finished second overall with a time of (24:43.5), closely trailing Grand Valley State's Caleb Futter who clocked in at (24:42.3). Freshman Lezawe Osterink also had an impressive performance finishing third at (24:46.5).

"Today, we are really just looking for the guys operating and racing like a team, like a unit, and I thought we did a pretty nice job of that," commented Aaron Simoneau, Head Men's Cross Country Coach for MSU."We did a really nice job of looking for each other in the middle of the race, racing in a pack and just racing as a team... Patrick Byrnes was absolutely outstanding he's made a lot of progress in the last six months and he has taken large step forward today so couldn't be more excited for his run today."

Completing their strong showing were Parker Lambers who placed fifth with his personal best time of (24:52.6) in an official collegiate race distance event Jack Pennewell sixth place finisher recorded times respectively Riley Hough seventh completing circuit board clocking similarly successful outcomes overall ranking positions final tally marks respective individuals involved efforts collective whole.

The Spartans will next compete on Friday October Joe Piane Invitational hosted Notre Dame.