Lake Superior State's assistant cross country coach Adam Grifka spent weeks gathering a list of the top 10 finishes in program history, by race length. Less than twenty minutes into the 2025 season, that chart needed substantial revisions, as the Lakers competed at the 40^th Annual Jeff Drenth Memorial 5K, hosted by Central Michigan University.

On a beautiful day in Shepherd, MI, freshman Alex Tyndall finished 35^th, with a time of 15:50.2, the best time for a 5K race by any freshman in Laker history. While collegiate programs don't often compete in 5K runs, Laker head coach Matt Stith was beyond thrilled with his team's performance and quality of work.

"We're very pleased with this race as an opener for our season." Stith said. "Lots of great individual performances.  Probably more gratifying, in both the men's and women's races, we had strong pack running, where groups of our runners were competing together at a pretty high level and a pretty high position in the race. Very happy with the results and couldn't be more excited to get back to work."

Four Laker men finished within 13 seconds of each other in that pack. Tyndall led the way, followed by sophomore star Gavin Guggemos at 16:00.7 and junior Derrian Kumfer at 16:00.9. Just behind them at 16:03.6 came first-year runner Birk Seagren. Guggemos now holds the program record for sophomores in the 5K, while Kumfer is second among juniors. Seagren's time is second-best among all Laker freshmen - only behind Tyndall.

Stith pointed out the importance of pack running for a team. "That's a real force multiplier, to know that you're with teammates who are fighting with you and lifting you up as you lift them up."

Just 14 seconds later, Jeremiah Witt finished at 16:17.50 - the third-best time by a freshman in LSSU history. While the Lakers head coach noted that 5K runs are fairly rare at the college level, he was delighted with the quality of work. "Very pleased to see them execute well and to see that feeling of having contributed to a full team effort," Stith said.

On the Laker women's cross country team, Stith remained very pleased with Friday's results. Laker sophomore Izzy Yeoman finished at 19:18.50, 42^nd in the 5K run, while sophomore Noel Black came in 45^th at 19:23.00. They're now first and second in the 5K among all sophomores in Laker history. Again, Stith was most pleased with the quality of work by the entire team in the race.

"It was a really great, all-around team effort," said Stith. Having a whole pack of runners right up in the mix was really gratifying and bodes well for the rest of the season."

Lillian Binger finished at 19:44.7, the 4^th best freshman mark in program history. Fellow rookie Olivia Gartrell at 20:08.5 clocks in as the 6^th best finish among Laker freshmen all-time. 

The Lakers head back downstate in two weeks. They'll compete at the state's capital, East Lansing, in the Spartan Invitational on September 12^th. True to their runners' nature, the Lakers can't wait to measure themselves against high-level Division I competition. Stith said, "We're really looking forward to that."

For interviews and media requests, contact Matt Pocket at mpocket@lssu.edu.