Men's Cross Country Runs to 20th Place Finish at Regionals
Nov 17, 2014
PELLA, Iowa - Peyton Nevills paced the Spartans with a 61st place finish as the University of Dubuque men's cross country team placed 20th at the 2014 Division III NCAA Central Regional meet.
The wintry weather played a small role on Saturday but didn't deter seven runners from breaking the elusive 25-minute barrier. St. Olaf featured four of those runners as they took home the title with 21 points. They secured an automatic berth in the NCAA Nationals along with IIAC Champion, Loras, who finished with 78 points. The host team, Central College, awaits their at-large fate after placing third, four points behind Loras.
The Spartans (536 points) defeated two IIAC foes in Coe and Buena Vista. Simpson was the next closest IIAC opponent after finishing 17th with 516 points.
"Our young runners weren't intimidated by the cold or the level of competition. The Central region, to me, is the most complete region out of all the qualifying meets for the NCAA National Meet. Every team has a quality squad", said assistant coach Geoff Gundlach on quality of competition and team mentality going into meet.
The Spartans improved five spots from last year's 25th place showing in the Central Regionals. Their vast improvement didn't happen by accident as nearly every runner posted a course (CPR) or overall personal record (OPR). A majority of the course records were set earlier this year at the Dutch Invitational when the weather forecast read 75 degrees and calm.
Nevills recorded a 26:23 time to lead the Spartans. Alec Bass followed shortly thereafter with a 73rd place finish in 26:34. Jordan Murray (125th, 27:54), Jack Lindsay (138th, 28:22), and Jonathan Berland (28:31) concluded their seasons on a high note and rounded out the Spartan Five. Matt Zittritsch (154th, 28:57) and Ames Helzer (166th, 29:34) rounded out the Spartan Varsity.
"We had some complete races from our back end runners but still posted some good times. We will have all top-10 runners back next year including a young man who would have been a top-7 runner for us, if not injured most of the year. We need to keep challenging each other to reach new levels of fitness and durability. I look forward to their progress for this increasingly hard working group", said Gundlach on his final thoughts.
|
Runner |
Old |
2014 Regional |
Old/Current |
|
Nevills |
26:56 |
26:23 |
26:18 |
|
Bass |
27:27 |
26:34 |
26:17 |
|
Murray |
29:10 |
27:54 |
27:41 |
|
Berland |
30:23 |
28:31 |
29:05 |
|
Helzer |
30:23 |
29:34 |
30:01 |
