Weber leads men at Central Region Championships

GRINNELL, Iowa – The Simpson men's cross country team ran to an 18th place finish Saturday at the 2009 NCAA Division III Central Region Championships at Oakland Acres Golf Course.

Simpson saw significant improvement from its last meet at Oakland Acres, when the Storm competed at the 45th Les Duke Invitational Sept. 12. Six of the Storm's seven runners cut time from the early-season meet. Head coach Brad Hofer also thought Simpson ran a better tactical race than two weeks earlier at the Iowa Conference Championships.

"The men ran a much smarter race than at the conference," head coach Brad Hofer said. "Most of the team improved from the last time we raced at Grinnell. This is a tough course, but we ran really strong against top-flight competition."

St. Thomas and Nebraska Wesleyan tied for the team lead with 116 points. Simpson (508) finished ahead of Saint Mary's (570) and just behind conference-rival Central (474).

Junior Luke Weber led the Storm, finishing 77th (27:02). Weber completed the 8-kilometer course in 27:59 the first time around. Senior Casey Dunning closed his career by placing 88th (27:07), improving 24 places from his 112th-place finish at the regional meet in 2008.

In his first regional experience, John Warnke finished 112th (27:39), nearly a minute quicker than his 28:37 performance at the Les Duke Invite. Sophomore Ryan Edwardson came in 114th (27:45) and sophomore Matt Stone – who placed 138th last season – came in 117th (27:49).

Freshman Mitchell Davis placed 132nd (28:10) and sophomore Ben Duea took 155th (29:50) to round out Simpson's regional lineup.