Storm runs to seventh at Conference

WAVERLY, Iowa – Casey Dunning (Sr., Marion, Iowa) led the Simpson men's cross country team to a seventh-place finish at the 2009 Iowa Conference Championships Saturday.

Simpson scored 178 points, trailing sixth-place Central by 42 points and in front of eighth-place Buena Vista 87 points.

Facing stiff competition within the conference, three of the six teams finishing ahead of Simpson carried top-10 regional rankings into the weekend. Conference-champion Luther (28 points) is No. 4 in the Central Region, third-place Cornell (84 points) is No. 10 and fourth-place Wartburg (99 points) is No. 9. Coe took second (53 points) and Loras came in fifth (133 points).

Pacing Simpson for the first time in 2009, Dunning turned in a 30th place finish (27:38). Dunning improved five spots from last season, when he placed 35th.

Sophomore Ryan Edwardson (Spencer, Iowa), who paced Simpson in the first two meets of the season, came in 35th (27:52). The Storm's other top runner, junior Luke Weber (Allamakee, Iowa), took 38th (27:59).

Mitchell Davis (Fr., Algona, Iowa) took 59th (28:44), John Warnke (Fr., Dubuque, Iowa) took 61st (28:47), Matt Stone (So., Boone, Iowa) finished 68th (28:54) and Ben Duea (So., Waukee, Iowa) placed 96th (30:09) to round out the varsity finishers for Simpson.

Simpson now has a week off before heading to the 2009 NCAA Division III Central Region Championships at Grinnell College's Oakland Acres Golf Course Saturday, Nov. 14.