KENOSHA, Wis. (September 2, 2022) – A handful of personal-best times and seven total top-ten finishes highlighted Loyola University Chicago's cross country teams' season-opening effort at the Vic Godfrey Open hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Parkside today. The Rambler men finished second with 44 points, while the women took home third place with a score of 67.
 
On the women's side, Loyola finished ahead of Ball State (85), Parkside (123), North Central (136) and Concordia Wisconsin (205). Three Ramblers turned in personal-best times, led by sophomore Grace Jostock, who dazzled in her season debut, placing second overall with a 4k time of 14:30.1 that was a whopping 23 seconds faster than the third-place finisher in the meet.
 
Junior Fran Hendrickson was one of three Ramblers to place in the top 10 overall, crossing the finish line in seventh place with a personal-best mark of 15:04.1. Aiden Grasse turned in a solid performance, clocking in at 15:15.2, also a personal best, to secure a ninth-place finish.
 
Autumn Dushack placed 20^th with a time of 15:49.7 and Loyola had runners cross the finish line back-to-back with Grace Maurer coming in 31^st place (16:12.5) and Emma Murray taking 32^nd with a 16:16.7. Eva Bednard completed the lineup of Loyola competitors in the season-opening race and she turned in a mark of 16:59.4 to claim 47^th place.
 
The Loyola men had a strong showing to kick off the season, placing second in the five-team field with 44 points, behind only Michigan Tech (24). Leading the way for the Ramblers was Academic All-America graduate student Chantz Visse, who was Loyola's top finisher in each of the four meets in which he competed last fall. This evening, Visse ran an 18:42.0 in the 6k race to place fourth overall.
 
Three other Ramblers earned top-ten finishes – Gabe Smit (6^th – 18:58.4), Miguel Abaitua (7^th – 18:59.7) and Nick Chudzik (10^th – 19:07.1) – and Nathan Kolbus placed 22^nd with a time of 19:37.8.
 
Loyola also had a handful of unattached runners, with the best performance from that group of individuals coming via freshman Woody Jerome, who crossed the finish line in eighth place with a mark of 19:02.2.  Jerome was one of four Rambler freshmen to compete unattached. Jake Phillips earned a 19^th-place showing (19:34.5) and was followed across the finish line by Kyle Knutson (37^th – 20:36.2) and Gabe Ryan (39^th – 20:41.9).
 
The Rambler cross country programs take a weekend off before competing at the Billiken Invitational hosted by Saint Louis University on September 17.