Willadsen paces men's cross country at Brissman/Lundeen

ROCK ISLAND, Ill. – Blake Willadsen paced the Simpson men's cross country team to a 16th-place finish of 50 teams at the Brissman/Lundeen Invitational at Sauke Golf Course on Friday.

Competing in a huge field consisting of teams from all divisions, the Storm scored 540 points, behind Goshen (514) and ahead of Illinois Wesleyan (573).

"It was nice to see improvement from our first mett," head coach Heath Moenck said. "We executed the race plan well. We have a long way to go, but the effort was there tonight."

Willadsen just missed a top-100 finish in his first meet of the season, which featured almost 342 competitors. The junior placed 104th, finishing the course in 26:29.2.

Ian McKenzie wasn't far behind Willadsen, placing 109th in 26:35.6. Nick Yaeger came in 122nd in 26:42.9 and freshman Trey Thompson took 142nd in 26:54.4.

Ethan Pellegrino, Miles Kirts and Andrew Mayes rounded out Simpson's top seven.

TOP FINISHERS
104. Blake Willadsen, 26:29.2
109. Ian McKenzie, 26:35.6
122. Nick Yaeger, 26:42.9
142. Trey Thompson, 26:54.4
148. Ethan Pellegrino, 26:58.1
152. Miles Kirts, 27:00.7
263. Andrew Mayes, 28:01.2

UP NEXT
Simpson goes to the Dan Huston Invitational next Saturday, Oct. 3 in Waverly, Iowa.