On October 10th, the Archers ran their second 8k of the season at St. Patrick's Park in South Bend, IN, for the 2025 Bethel Invitational hosted by Bethel University. Bethel took first with 57 points, Olivet Nazarene second with 69 points, and Goshen third with 72 points. The Archers placed 8th out of the 10 teams (185 points), improving their team average by 23 seconds, team time by 1-minute 54 seconds, and breaking last year's team time record by 3 minutes 19 seconds.
Senior Kevin Drake dug deep to finish in 28:14, running 1-minute 22 seconds faster than his previous PR in September. Nate Brant ran a strong race in 30:39, shaving 21-seconds off his PR. Joel Mead was next in 31:06, just a few seconds off his PR, despite coming back from illness. Josiah Berni closed in 31:43, over 1-minute faster than last race. Owen McKenney gave a great effort to finish in 32:02, a 1-minute 18-second PR. Hayden Brown was next in 33:03 (55-second PR), Hunter Otis in 33:47 (25-second PR), and Silas McCormick in 36:46, (shaving 90 seconds off his last race). William Derby finished in 37:09 (59 seconds off last race), Nate Darge in 37:28 (over 1 minute faster than last year), and Joseph Clare in 43:10, his first-ever 8k.
The Archers will race at the Greenville Classic on Friday, October 17th hosted by Greenville University in Hillsboro, IL. The men's race will take place at 4:15pm at the Hillsboro Country Club.
