Cedar Rapids, Iowa - The men's cross country team traveled West to Cedar Rapids, Iowa to continue their 2024 racing schedule. Mount Mercy University played host to the annual event hosted at Seminole Valley Park. The Saints cruised to the team title by defeating second place and 18th ranked St. Francis of Illinois by 59 points. The Saints tallied 45 points and placed four individuals in the top ten and six in the top twenty. The Saints also eclipsed the previous school record for team time by averaging 25:12 a person for the top five scorers. The previous mark was held by the 2007 team for their performance at Bush Park in Salem, Oregon (25:15 average).
The Saints saw a strong presence near the front of the race as
Matthew Schieber placed 4th in a time of 25:02 to pace the Saints attack.
Edward Frey and
Ethan Barker were just off Matt's pace as they crossed in 6th and 7th place respectively. Frey crossed the line in 25:06, while Barker was one tick back at 25:07.
Ben Hardy (25:12 -9th place) and
Juan David Hernandez (25:33 - 19th place) would round out the scoring for the Saints and also secure the school record performance.
Assistant Coach
Nick Thelen added, "After a rocky performance last week, I loved seeing the resilience of this team by responding with a team time school record and a convincing win over a strong St. Francis team. We had personal bests from a large portion of our team and we really took advantage of the great course and racing conditions today. Our pack of four seniors set a tone up front early that we came to race hard and our chase packs followed suit as well. We picked up 12 points in the final 2 miles to take our team score from 57 to 45 which shows how hard these guys were racing in the late stages of the race. This is exactly the kind of competitive drive we need as we enter into the championship portion of our schedule."
The Saints also received strong performances from
Brian Langlois (20th - 25:37) and
Noah Momber (24th - 25:45) to round out the top seven. Aquinas also saw two other competitors break into the 25's as
Shema Reponse (26th - 25:51) and
Austin Williford (28th - 25:53) set personal bests.
A total of 212 individuals competed from 20 different institutions.
Aquinas will return to action next Saturday as they make the short trip to Muskegon to participate in the Jayhawk Invitational hosted by Muskegon Community College.
