LINCOLN, Neb. - The 14th-ranked Southwestern Community College men's cross country team took 14th place out of 17 complete teams in the Gold Division here Saturday at the Greeno-Dirksen Invite at Mahoney Golf Course.
The Gold Division (NCAA Division II, Division II, NAIA, and JUCO teams) included five ranked NJCAA teams, as well as Iowa Western and Colby community colleges, which had not competed yet to be ranked. The Spartans posted a team score of 363, good enough for 14th place in the highly competitive field, just four points behind Hastings College for 13th. Southwestern finished with an average team time of 28:55.96.
"The level of competition we saw Saturday is similar to what we will see at the national championships," Southwestern Director of Cross Country/Track & Field Scott Vicker said. "Getting to compete in the same race as Division I schools, as well as strong Division II programs and the best of the best in NJCAA, gave our student-athletes an opportunity to see where they stack up against some of the best competition in the country. Saturday was a valuable learning experience for us."
Half of Southwestern's roster made its debut at the 8K race distance. Freshman York Miles led the way for the Spartans, running 27:54.3 to finish just ahead of sophomore teammate Josh Baudler in 27:54.9 in 120th and 121st overall in the combined race. Both Miles and Baudler ran under the school's individual qualifying mark of 28:00 to punch their tickets to the NJCAA Championships. Freshmen Jon McCall (28:54.6), Robert Norton (29:29.6) and Conrad Schroeder (30:26.4) rounded out the team scoring for the Spartans.
"Josh did a great job of getting out hard and putting himself in position to be successful. He faded a bit toward the end, but after dealing with an injury during the week, I thought it was a strong run for him. York ran a great race and kept fighting for spots. He had a strong final kilometer to catch Josh," Vicker said. "I was most impressed by Conrad, who looked the best he has all season so far. If he can continue improve from here, that will be a big key to our success moving forward."
Sophomores Connor Koppa and Nicholas Mather both ran PRs in their first 8K race of the season. Koppa ran 30:29.4 for a 9-second PR from last year, while Mather was right behind in 30:29.8 for a 26-second improvement over last year. Levi Detrick finished with a clocking of 33:53.5.
"Seeing that kind of improvement from last year is a great sign for Connor and Nick," Vicker said. "They are lightyears ahead of where they were at this time last year. They have an opportunity to continue to lower those PRs significantly."
The Spartans return to action Saturday, Sept. 25, at the Grand View Viking Invitational, held on DMACC's campus in Ankeny. The men race at 11:15 a.m.