TIFFIN, Ohio - The Malone University men's and women's cross country teams competed in the frigid cold on Saturday at the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) Cross Country Championships, hosted by Tiffin University. Redshirt junior Mackenna Curtis-Collins won back-to-back G-MAC 6K Championships with a win in the women's race and a time of 21:24.2. The Pioneer men were led by Zach Fresenko, who placed third at 25:23.5 in the 8K championship race.
 
The Malone women placed third as a team with 82 points. Walsh won with a score of 30 points and Hillsdale followed closely behind in second with 46 points. In the men's race, Malone were runner-ups as a team, placing second with 78 points. Walsh swept the team awards with a first place 21 points in the 8K men's championship.

Women's Race:
 
The top four runners, including Mackenna Curtis-Collins, jumped out to an early lead in the opening 2,000 meters, but Curtis-Collins and Maryssa Depies separated themselves two-thirds of the way through the event. In the final push, Curtis-Collins distanced herself from the pack and found herself on top of the podium yet again. With the win, Curtis-Collins was the individual G-MAC Champion and named G-MAC Runner of the Year for the second time.
 
Eline Pinter (22:38.2), Leah Metzger (22:39.2) and Maria Martin (22:40.7) finished 18th, 19th and 20th in the women's race, and were honored with Second Team All-Conference. Seniors Pinter and Martin recorded their best career times in a 6K race on Saturday.
 
Rounding out scoring for the Malone women were 24th place finisher Ella Pumneo (22:57.4), 25th place Sabrina McClain (23:04.4) and Jocelyn Miller (23:07.6), who turned in a 27th place finish.

Men's Race:
 
Zach Fresenko had another strong performance at the G-MAC Championships, securing a third place finish with a time of 25:23.5. This is Fresenko's fourth time being named First Team All-Conference and his third consecutive top five finish in the conference championship race. Fresenko stuck right with top runners Noah Murray and Drew Roberts for the first 6,000 meters, but as the race wore on, they pulled away to take the top two spots.
 
A slew of Pioneers finished in the top 20 to claim Second Team All-Conference spots. Those include 17th place finisher Christopher Cannon (26:06.4), 18th Lucas Clark (26:11.3) and freshman Demetrius Snellenberger (26:13.2), who came home 19th in his first championship event.
 
Other scorers in the men's race included freshman Max Gucker (26:17.3) in 22nd, Matthew Kuyken (26:45.6) in 30th, and Lucas Huber (26:55.1) in 34th. Gucker had his best career time in an 8K in his young Pioneer career at Tiffin.
 
Full results can be seen by clicking the link above.