WAYNE, Neb. -- NCAA Division II Wayne State edged the Bellevue University men's cross country team 52 to 53 in Friday's Wildcat Classic held at the Wayne Country Club. Only 0.2 seconds separated a Wayne runner and Bruin Chris Casart at the finish line and that was the difference with the Wayne State runner finishing in tenth and Casart just missing out on the podium. Division II Minot State won the team title in the five team field held in mild and windy conditions with a low score of 28.
Freshman Peyton Anthony was the first Bruin across the line as he placed eighth overall running 27:47.4 for eight kilometers (4.97 miles) and earning himself a Top Ten podium spot. All finishers in front of Anthony were either Minot State or South Dakota School of Mines athletes. As mentioned above, Chris Casart narrowly missed out on joining Anthony on the podium, missing by a fraction of a second to take the eleventh position in 27: 50.9. Des Debesh, seeing his first action for the Bruins this season, finished 14th in 28:40.0. Freshman Kaleb Wooten and Junior Edrei Murillo were not far back, finishing in 17th and 18th, respectively, in times of 28:51.3 and 28:51.9.
Rounding out the Bruin competitors were Sam McIntyre, crossing in 30:02.6 good for 26th, Aaron Newton finishing 29th in 30:23.9 and Cole Wagner placing 34th in 31:15.8. Forty-three runners completed the course.
Head Coach Craig Christians: "This was probably the most complete team race by our men in the four seasons of the program. Wayne State is a good Division II team and we ran right with them. The course was a bit tougher than the Greeno meet last week with the guys running an average of about 30 seconds slower. At this point, I'm more concerned about the effort than the time and I thought that it was excellent today. We ran smart as a team at the start and then started running people down and I like that style of racing. I felt bad for Chris and his near miss at getting on the podium. He'll bounce back and I'm excited to see what he and the rest of the guys can do on a very fast Briar Cliff course next Friday."
The Bruins travel to the Adams Nature Preserve in North Sioux City, SD, next Friday, October 1, for the Briar Cliff Charger Invite. The women race at 3:00 PM followed by the men at 3:40.
