The Southwestern men's cross country team competed Friday, Oct. 12, at the Trent Smith Invite in Mason City on the North Iowa Area Community College campus. It was a cold day with soggy ground, as rain dredged the state of Iowa most of the week. The men finished in third place and were led by freshman Cedrick Watson and sophomore Shane Breheny in sixth (27:14) and eighth (27:25), respectively.

"This was one of the best meets I've ever been a part of coaching. All 10 of our men had season bests and nine of the 10 had all-time career-best marks," mentioned Head Cross Country and Track and Field Coach Trey Bruton. The men's race was highlighted by a pair of top-10 finishes in Watson and Breheny. "Those two really led our team down a new path today. We set out a plan to control ourselves early in the race and they executed perfectly. It was really exciting and encouraging to see us run like that and for our guys to figure out how to race like that."

Bruton summarized by saying, "We have had an up and down year with some injuries and outside factors that have affected the team but this performance really helped set the tone for where we are headed to finish this season. Our men are hungry and plan to have a much stronger finish than last year."