Men's cross country finishes with best effort at regionals

PELLA, Iowa – Nick Yaeger paced the Simpson men's cross country team to a 17th-place finish of 27 teams at the NCAA Division III Central Region Championships on Saturday.

Running in sub-freezing conditions, Yaeger placed 83rd in the field of 189 runners to lead the Storm. He completed the 8k course in 26:42.9.

"I'm very pleased with hour our men raced today," head coach Heath Moenck said. "Each guy had his best race of the season, which was fun to watch."

Simpson scored 516 points, ahead of Cornell (523), Martin Luther (535) and Dubuque (536). The Storm finished behind Dubuque at the conference meet, but showed improvement just two weeks later.

Sophomores Ethan Pellegrino and Blake Willadsen finished 93rd and 94th respectively, as the two were separated by less than a second. Pellegrino crossed the finish line in 26:50.8 and Willadsen crossed in 26:51.1.

Ian McKenzie (119th, 27:42.5), Andrew Mayes (127th, 27:59.0), Nathaniel Jones (131st, 28:07.7) and Miles Kirts (132nd (28:08.2) rounded out Simpson's finishers.

Around the Central Region

Iowa Conference schools made up two of the top three in the team standings. St. Olaf won the meet with 21 points, while IIAC Champion Loras came in second (78) and Central (82) placed third. St. Olaf's Grant Wintheiser earned medalist honors in 24:13.4.