Duo of Ortiz and Nava Pace Spartans to 3rd Place at Dr. Tucker Invite

It was primarily an IIAC affair at the Dubuque Soccer Complex if not for Monmouth, who crashed the IIAC party with a fourth-place team finish (71 points). Taking home the trophy was Loras who narrowly edged out Simpson, 39-49. The Spartans represented third-place with 68 points. Coe concluded the team scoring with 130 points.

Ortiz couldn’t quite catch the swift Kyra Kimber from Monmouth (22:53) but still finished strong in second place (23:24). She sparked her teammate - “Ms. Consistent” as assistant coach Geoff Gundlach would call her – Nava into a seventh place performance with a time of 24:37. Freshman Skylar Brooks (25:13, 16^th) ran like a veteran as she breezed to a 15-second PR (personal record) on a windy day.

Reliable seniors, Rachael Busjahn and Sam Holen, did their thing as they finished three seconds apart with times of 25:37 (23^rd) and 25:40 (24^th), respectively.

“Our seniors dug down and did a good job as our number 2-4-5 runners tonight,” said Gundlach on their performance as he challenged them in preparation for the IIAC Conference meet.

“We are looking forward to the conference meet but we know we have to keep working and striving to improve. We can rest on absolutely nothing the next month and we have to ask more from ourselves and our teammates.”

The Spartan harriers will look to do just that as they travel to Indianola, Iowa to compete at the Iowa Conference Championships on November 1^st at 11 a.m. It will be hosted by Simpson College.