Willadsen leads men's cross country in final tune-up before IIAC Championship

ETTRICK, Wis. – Blake Willadsen led the Simpson men's cross country team for the third-straight meet and the Storm placed 15th of 21 teams at the Jim Drews/Tori Neubauer Invitational on Saturday, the final tune up before the Iowa Conference Championship.

Willadsen placed 74th of 333 competitors at Ettrick Golf Club, navigating the 8k course in 26:34.07.

"Today's race was a big improvement from two weeks ago," head coach Heath Moenck said. "I was very pleased with our 1-through-4 runners. We had a couple of guys under the weather today, but the pieces are in place to finish the season strong."

Behind Willadsen was Ethan Pellegrino, who had his highest team finish of the season in taking 89th overall (26:46.74). Miles Kirts cracked the top-100 in 100th place (27:00.35) and freshman Trey Thompson took 103rd (27:03.75).

Andrew Mayes placed 170th (28:02.59), Brady Eversmeyer 193rd (28:17.71) and Kyle Hovey 221st (28:41.91) to round out the varsity finishers.

TOP FINISHERS
74. Willadsen, 26:34.07
89. Pellegrino, 26:46.74
100. Kirts, 27:00.35
103. Thompson, 27:03.75
170. Mayes, 28:02.59
193. Eversmeyer, 28:17.71
221. Hovey, 28:41.91

UP NEXT
Iowa Conference Championship, Saturday, Oct. 31 at Dubuque, Iowa (hosted by Loras)