The Wabash cross country team competed Saturday against some of the same teams it hopes see again in November at the NCAA Championships. The Little Giants took fifth out of 13 teams at the Madison Kiwanis Invitational at Hanover College.
Hanover will serve as host for the championships November 23. Several top teams from the Midwest took advantage of Saturday's race to learn the course and measure up the rest of the competition.
Cole Hruskovich was the first Wabash runner to cross the finish line at the end of the 8,000-meter run. He finished 27th with a time of 27:28.1.
Ryan Horner was right behind in 28th place, crossing the line in 27:29.3.
Fabian House took 32nd place, posting a time of 27:42.7. Freshman
Mason McKinney socred a 34th-place finish in his first collegiate 8,000-meter run, turning in a time of 27:51.9.
Jake Ponton was the final scorer for the Little Giants, finishing 35th (27:53.8) for a total gap time from first to fifth for Wabash of 25.7 seconds.
Jacob Caddick grabbed 43rd place with a time of 28:09.1.
PJ Izaguirre took 59th place in the field of 155 runners by finishing in 29:07.9.
North Central won the team competition with 19 points, nearly locking down all top-five spots. Ohio Northern scored 84 points to finish second. Otterbein was third (110 points), followed by Wisconsin-Stevens Point (124). Wabash fell two points behind in fifth place with a total score of 126.
A group of seven Wabash runners raced simultaneously at Indiana University in an exhibition at the Indiana Open.
Nick Boyce was the top finisher for the Little Giants, crossing the line in 13th place at 26:35.0 in a head-to-head race versus the IU varsity. Freshman
Cordell Lewis completed his first 8,000-meter college race in 26:47.3 to take 15th place.
Jared Burris finished 21st (27.19.5), just ahead of
Billy McManus in 22nd place (27.23.8).
Dalton Boyer crossed the line in 27:35.0 and a 26th-place finish.
Adam Togami (27:44.3; 29th place) and
Sean Lewis (28:04.3; 30th place) were the final Little Giants to complete the race.
Wabash will take the next week off from competition before returning to action September 20 at the Indiana Intercollegiates at Indiana University.
Men's Team Scoring - Hanover (link)
Men's Individual Results - Hanover (link)
Indiana Open Individual Times (pdf)
