NORTH SIOUX CITY, S.D. -- The Bruin men's cross country team was in action for the fifth-straight weekend on Saturday at the Briar Cliff Invite held at the Adams Nature Preserve in North Sioux City, S.D. Desyebelew Debesh had an outstanding, day cutting 1:18 from his personal and season's best, running 26:06.9 and placing 40th in the 186-runner field.
In the process, Debesh established a new Bruin school record for 8K, shattering the existing mark of 27:02 held by Chris Casart. Head Coach Craig Christians commented, "When you think that this was Des' fifth cross country race in his career, his improvement has been remarkable."
Scoring for the Bruins today were Cole Wagner, 91st in 27:54, Edrei Murillo, 106th running 28:17, Chris Casart, 110th finishing in 28:21, and Gabe Poppen who ran 29:35 in 150th position.
Christians continued stating, "I was very happy with the way we ran today as a team. The start of this meet is extremely congested and we didn't have a great starting spot but I thought our guys did well to remain calm and run consistently, making their way through the field. Three of five guys ran season-best times with Gabe just missing his by 0.4 seconds and Edrei just 12 seconds off. This meet is loaded with great teams and runners and we had perfect conditions (temperature near 50 and calm) on a very fast course. I thought we held our own against a very tough field. This was a good way to end a busy racing schedule and we're going to take a few weeks and get in a good training block before we line up again."
The Bruin men finished ninth among fourteen scoring teams. The meet was won by NJCAA powerhouse Iowa Central CC, scoring just 24 points with all five of their scorers in the top ten. The NAIA's twelfth-ranked Dordt Defenders were runner-up.
The Bruins return to action on Saturday, October 24 when they travel to Yankton, S.D. for the Mount Marty Invitational.
