An old face stole the spotlight, and a new one is moving into the limelight with high finishes early in the season.
This weekend, the DePauw women's and men's cross-country teams placed ninth and 10th at the Calvin College Knight Invitational in Grand Rapids, Mich, respectively.
While the team finishes were not much to note, individual performances by two Tigers bode well for the future.
With 257 points, the women's team was led by freshman Heather O'Brien in 16th place at 18:35.6. Senior Noah Droddy took fourth for the men with a time of 24:55.6 on the 8K course. The men scored 305 points as a team.
"The purpose of going up there was to get a real competitive meet," head coach Kori Stroffregen said. "We wanted to get on a course that was fair and fast, and that was also accomplished."
With 24 total schools participating, Calvin was the favorite of this race, being ranked 7th in Div. III. The Calvin men and women won with 30 and 34 points, respectively.
The Knight Invitational hadn't seen the DePauw cross country team in quite a few years, but its even running plane, gradual and smooth elevations and a 10-meter wide path aided the runners. Its flat nature also deemed advantageous for Droddy, who set a personal best.
"I ran under 25 minutes, which was the fastest I've opened up by at least a minute," Droddy said. "I had some really good competition - all of the top five runners were All-Americans."
O'Brien brought just as much to her second collegiate meet, after teaming up with sophomore Hope Jordan last week and placing first in the tag-team Hokum Karem at Wabash College.
"I was satisfied with the results," O'Brien said. "It being the first main meet made me excited because I can hope for a lot of improvement for future meets."
Stoffregen added: "Believe it or not this is the first year she's ever run cross country. She discovered the running bug here late in her high school career. She's very talented. We're excited to see once she gets cross country figured out how good she can be."
The cross country team will take their top 10 finishes to the Indiana Intercollegiates on Friday in Terre Haute, Ind.