Looking Back at the 2025 Cross Country Season
CARLINVILLE, IL – Blackburn College Athletics continues looking at the 2025-26 season by looking at the 2025 men’s and women’s cross country season.
CARLINVILLE, IL – Blackburn College Athletics continues looking at the 2025-26 season by looking at the 2025 men's and women's cross country season.
The women's team highlighted the season with a 23 point improvement and finished ahead of two other St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference teams. The men's team saw an even bigger improvement as they improved by 59 points and beat out three SLIAC squads.
Both teams featured a consistent five who competed in every event as the men's team featured senior Kobe Patton, juniors Collyn Oberkfell and Ulises Espinoza, and freshman Izaiah Watkins and Sam Schoeneweis.
The women's team saw junior Gracie Jent lead a group of freshman throughout the year, Sophia Palmier, Mary Ahrens, Hunter Kirk and Kaitlyn Garland.
The season began with the teams competing at the Webster Opener. Freshman Izaiah Watkins paced the men's squad with a team-best time of 25:08.7 on the 6k course. Junior Collyn Oberkfell, freshman Sam Schoeneweis, senior Kobe Patton, and junior Ulises Espinoza all scored points for the Beavers.
Jent led the women's team as she finished in 30:59.2 with the four freshman behind her.
The teams then travelled to the University of Springfield Hy-Vee Prairie Stars Invitational. Jent again led the women's team, running 26:17.0 while Oberkfell slightly outpaced Watkins by 22 seconds. Jent again led the women's team with Palmier and Ahrens close behind.
The next week, both teams headed to Bradley University to run in the Bradley Pink & White Classic. Watkins led the men's team with a time of 31:47.5 while Espinoza posted his best time of the season to finish second among the team.
It was a good meet for the women's team as they saw everyone post season-best times led by Kirk's four-minute improvement.
Th 2025 season came to close at the SLIAC Championships. Watkins posted a season-best of 31:05.8 while Oberkfell improved by 55 seconds. Junior Sam Burrows joined the team and led the Beavers at 30:10.8. As a team, the Beavers finished ahead of Mississippi University for Women and Lyon College to take sixth place with 152 points. It was a 59 point improvement over the 2024 season and marks one of the best finishes for the cross country time in several years.
Jent paced the women's team at the SLIAC Championships with her achieving her first under-30 6k time, finishing in 29:31.5. Palmier, 31:19.7, and Ahrens, 32:10.3, helped aid the team. The women's team finished ahead of Webster and tallied 149 points to improve on their 2024 performance by 23 points.