WILMORE, Ky.--- Asbury men's cross country won first place in the Justin Spoon Fiercely Faithful Meet on Saturday morning in Wilmore, Ky., led by freshman adventure education and leadership major Jesse Gassman, who took first place individually. AU women's cross country finished second place, only behind NCAA Division I Eastern Kentucky University.
The event is in honor of our fallen teammate Justin Spoon, who was a two-time champion in this meet. On March 23, 2023, he passed away after a courageous battle with cancer. As the Spiritual Life Coordinator on campus, Justin was asked to share his advice for a fruitful life, and his response was to be "fiercely faithful".
Gassmann's 28:53.91 championship 8K time took almost a minute (58 seconds) off of his previous best time for an 8K (five miles). His father (Justin Gassmann) ran 31:24 on the Asbury course as a freshman in 1995, but lowered that to 28:19 as an Asbury senior in 1998.
The men's team scored a narrow four-point victory over Collegiate Conference of the South (CCS) rival Maryville College, after losing to them two weeks ago. On October 10, the Eagles will travel to Maryville to face the Scots on their home course.
AU freshman Noah Smith ran a seventh-place race with his 30:01.78 time. Junior captain JoJo Ernst was the other top-10 Eagle in the team win, running a time of 30:29.45.
In the women's race, Asbury's second-place finish was above Maryville in third, IU Columbus in fourth and Kentucky State in fifth.
Additional teams that competed in the men's and women's races included third-place IU Columbus, fourth-place Earlham, fifth place Boyce, and also Kentucky State, Alice Lloyd, Spalding, and Welch. For the women's race,
AU junior social work and adventure leadership and education major Bailey Gassmann finished fourth place indivually, doing well to stay close to the EKU front-runners with her 24:14.79 6K time. However, it was top-10 finishes by senior Brooke O'Carroll (26:14.36) and freshman Emma Le Duc (26:19.39) that were truly breakthrough performances for the Eagles.
"This was really a wonderful day of competition. Justin Spoon won our home meet a couple of times, and it was a privilege to honor his memory with this celebration of running for the glory of God. Jesse Gassmann stunned everyone with his victory today. He has been our third or fourth runner in our previous meets this season. Noah, Jojo, Cam, and Josh also ran really well to get us the team title. Brooke ran great today in the women's race; certainly her best outing of the year.
Next Saturday at Louisville is the largest meet we'll run all year. Instead of fifty or so runners, there will be hundreds. It requires a very different mindset to compete in a meet like this, but we are looking forward to the challenge."
Randy Crist | Asbury Cross Country Head Coach
Asbury will compete in the Live in Louisville event on October 4 at the University of Louisville.
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