YANKTON, S.D. -- Four of five Bruin runners were within a minute of their P.R. in difficult conditions on Saturday for the Bellevue University men's cross country team which placed 11th at the Mount Marty Invitational..
Course and Conditions:
The meet was held at the Fox Run Golf Course in Yankton, S.D. and the race temperature was 45° with a strong northwest wind.
The competitive field included 13 teams featuring No. 21-ranked Dordt, University of Sioux Falls (NCAA D-2), Augustana (NCAA D-2), and individuals from NCAA D-1 South Dakota State.
Recap:
Chris Casart was the first Bruin across the finish line in a time of 27:55.96. He placed 55th overall and 38th among scoring runners.
Cole Wagner placed 74th overall (50th scoring) in a time of 28:46.01.
Next across the finish were Jason Landin (93rd place, 59th scoring) and Tony Chol (100th place, 62nd scoring) with times of 29:54.38 and 30:28.06, respectively.
The Bruin lineup was rounded out by Aaron Newton (110th place, 68th scoring) with a time of 31:38.78.
Sioux Falls easily took home the team title with a perfect 15 points, their top five runners placing 1-5 and separated by just 31.66 seconds.
Augustana placed second with a team score of 66, followed by Dordt (86 points) in third.
Bellevue placed 11th of the 11 teams scoring at the meet, finishing 35 points back of host Mount Marty.
Mason Phillips of USF took home individual medalist honors with a time of 25:13.62, edging out teammate Jase Kraft (25:13.86) for the top spot on the podium. Fellow teammate Steven Brown (25:17.64) also picked up a podium finish.
Coach Craig Christians:
"Conditions were tough today with a cold and strong north win and we hadn't run in anything like that yet this year. The weather is certainly not going to be nicer when we go to conference in Wisconsin in a couple weeks so hopefully we learned from our race today … how to dress, how to warm up, and how to use the wind to our benefit. Most of the team was about a minute off of their personal bests and I thought they ran well for the conditions. I thought Jason Landin ran a particularly inspired race today and was actually only 15 seconds from his best."
Up Next:
With the regular season finished, Bellevue next competes at the North Star Athletic Association Championships on Saturday, Nov. 3. The meet is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. at the Maple Grove Venues in West Salem, Wis. and will be hosted by Viterbo University.
