Wildcats take first, second at Maple Leaf Invite

Cassie Long

The Baker men’s team takes off for the start of the Maple Leaf Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 3, at the Baldwin City Golf Course.

The men’s and women’s cross country teams opened up the season strong on Saturday at Baker’s 2016 Maple Leaf Invitational race. The men’s team finished first in the 5K and the women’s team finished second in the 4K.

On the men’s side, freshman Greg Flores took second with a time of 16:36. His performance earned Flores the Heart of America Athletic Conference runner of the week honor. Junior Joe Linder finished right behind his teammate in third place. Andrew Dare and Jamie Steury also finished in the top 10 for Baker.

The men finished ahead of Johnson County Community College by seven points, but the JCCC women finished ahead of the Wildcats by 23 points.

For the women’s team, freshman Janeane Hernandez was Baker’s top runner, finishing in ninth place overall.

Jenna Black, Bailey Horlander, Annie Schmucker and Shelby Stephens all finished in the top 20 for Baker.

The next race for both teams is the Southern Stampede on Saturday, Sept. 17, in Joplin, Missouri. Last season the men placed third at the Southern Stampede and the women finished 10th out of 20 teams.