Hot, sunny days on hilly courses. Not ideal for cross country runners.

But days like these force you to dig deep and learn what you're really made of.

Lake Superior State's men's and women's cross country teams learned a lot at the Lucian Rosa Invitational on Saturday afternoon in Kenosha, WI. GLIAC opponent Wisconsin-Parkside hosted the race.

"It was a very challenging race environment," said Laker cross country head coach Matt Stith. "It was a much more difficult course than we've been used to thus far. Our first time on this kind of course. It was also a good deal warmer and sunnier than is ideal for cross country. Those two situations combined to present a very challenging race for everybody.

"That said, there was a lot to like in the way we responded to that challenge. I saw all of our athletes engaging with the hills in the way we talked about and strategized. They put forth great effort and finished saw. Generally, we saw a great effort. Just about all of the athletes that ran this course last season saw improvement despite a much rougher day for cross country, so that was encouraging as well."

In the 6K women's race, sophomore Izzy Yeoman led LSSU with a time of 23:45.89, improving her time from the Spartan Invitational by ten seconds. That's despite the hot day and hilly course. Lilly Binger cut eight seconds off of her time, finishing at 24:43.52. Then, true to the Lakers form this season, runners four through seven finished within 40 seconds of each other.

"Our women really worked together and worked hard to adjust and do what they could do to make up for a challenging position at the start," said Stith. "Very pleased with that. A terrific effort, a great spirit up and down the roster."

Olivia Gartrell cut 24 seconds from her last race time, finishing at 25:44.9, moving from eighth on the team at the Spartan Invitational to fifth at Parkside.

On the men's side, Gavin Guggemos finished the 8K race at 28:26.08, leading the team. As Stith pointed out, this was a challenging course for a young team. Freshman Alex Tyndall had spoken about "hitting the wall" at the 5K mark in East Lansing, as high school cross country competes at that distance. While the Lakers head coached was pleased with how his team handled the hills, he also noted a unique challenge the Kenosha course poses.

He said, "the 5K mark is right at the base of the second time having to go up the steepest, most challenging hill on the course. At that particular point, it was rough. But the freshman definitely responded better today in their second attempt, which is exactly what we'd expect."

Junior Derrian Kumfer came in second on the Lakers with a time of 29:10.96. Behind him, freshman Jeremiah Witt cracked the top three on the squad, finishing at 29:35.35. Fellow freshman Noah Hernandez finished the race at 30:53.71. 

"I think we're right where we thought we would be," Stith observed after the meet. "We're a very young team, so there's a lot of growing to do over the course of a season."

He added, "Everybody competed well. We had people stepping up to places on the team that they're not accustomed to and they took on that challenge and gave us all they had. Very satisfied with the effort."

The Lakers next compete at the Jayhawk Invitational in Muskegon on October 11^th. Then the schedule ramps up, with races each of the next several weeks, including October 17^th at the Husky Invitational in Houghton, MI.