Sophomore Madison Nelson opened the 2022 cross country campaign for the Bruins with a victory at Friday's Bill Buxton Invitational. It was the first individual invitational win in Bruin cross country history as the teams open their fifth season of competition.

The rolling terrain of Pickard Park outside Indianola, Iowa, was the site of Friday's meet hosted by Simpson College. Race start times had been pushed back two hours in an effort to avoid extreme heat but runners still faced temperatures in the upper 80's and high humidity, tough conditions for a distance race. As she had done in previous races, Nelson started conservatively and had moved into the top ten by the mile mark. By two miles, she had just two Simpson runners ahead, and she gradually pulled away for a nine-second margin of victory over the four-kilometer (2.5 mile) course. Her winning time of 16:14.4 was a BU school record for 4K, slicing nearly forty seconds from the previous mark.

Hannah Perkins, running in her first cross country event as a Bruin, narrowly missed a top half finish as she placed 20th of 39 finishers running 17:48.7. Rounding out the Bruin competitors on the day was Caroline Feig, placing 28th in 18:50.6.

Head Coach Craig Christians: "Madison is a much better runner today than even three months ago when she was an All-American in the half marathon at the outdoor track championships. She had an outstanding summer of training and I'm really excited to see what she can do this season. Hannah had a nice race today, also, and is another example of someone making big improvements that come from a great summer of running."

The Bruins will return to action in two weeks when they compete at the very competitive Greeno/Dirksen Invite in Lincoln on September 17.