Welti becomes first male cross country runner to qualify for nationals
For the first time in Franklin College history, a male cross country runner will be headed to the Division III national tournament.
Senior Brandon Welti finished 16th in last weekend’s regional with a time of 25:28.18, a school record. He will travel to the Division III national tournament this weekend, which is being held at Hanover.
Welti was excited when he found out about his accomplishment.
“It’s pretty cool. When I first found out about it, it was excitement, but then it was relief when my waiting was over,” Welti said about after the race.
Franklin sent both the men’s and women’s cross country teams to Otterbein to compete in the Great Lakes Regional meet Saturday.
The HCAC champion Grizzlies finished ahead of the seven teams in the conference. Rose-Hulman was the closest team to the Grizzlies, finishing in 19th as a team on the men’s side and Manchester in 20th on the women’s.
The men’s and women’s teams each finished 16th, in the 8K and 6K races, respectively.
The men finished with 424 points, while Calvin finished with 37 points. The top three finishers were from Calvin. Ohio Northern was the closest team to beating Calvin.
Welti led the team with his 16th place finish followed by fellow seniors Sean Kennedy and Christian Postel who finished in 80th and 91st place respectively.
Sophomores Jacob Hojnacki and Kevin Martin finished out the scoring for the Grizzlies with 104th- and 133rd-place finishes.
The women finished with 479 points, 437 points behind Calvin who swept the regional. Case Western Reserve was the closest team to Calvin, finishing 42 points behind Calvin’s total of 42 points.
Welti will race for a final time as a Franklin Grizzly on Saturday at Hanover College.
Welti isn’t setting his standards too high for nationals, though.
“I’m not expecting to be one of the top competitors, but I’m hoping to be at least in the top half,” he said.
