Dudley, Moon claim all-region accolades

ROCK ISLAND, Ill. -- Harry Dudley and Spencer Moon both had career-best performances at the NCAA Division III Midwest Region Cross Country Championships to earn all-region accolades and unofficially qualify for the NCAA DIII Championships taking place a week from today. The duo await the official qualification list that will be released on Sunday.

As a unit, the regionally-ranked Storm men finished in seventh place with 173 points. No. 1 Wartburg earned the region's automatic bid to the national meet with 38 points, while No. 14 Washington (86 points) and No. 9 North Central (90 points) rounded out the top-three. No. 18 Chicago placed fourth, No. 16 Loras took fifth, and Central bested Simpson by six points to grab sixth place.

Dudley earned the first all-region distinction of his five-year career with a 10th place finish in the field of 217 runners. He ran the course in 24:44.8, erasing over 30 seconds off his previous fastest mark set earlier this season.

Moon also recorded a new career-best with a 24:45.2 finish in the race, the 11th best time of the day. He jumped 19 spots from the last time he competed in the regionals as a freshman and now has two all-region awards on his resume.

Louden Foster finished third for the Storm with a career-best race and seniors Shane Breheny and Ryan Courtney closed their careers with top-60 performances thanks to personal bests. Noah Nelsen and Andrew Klein also ran for Simpson.

"Our men were terrific today and I'm proud of their efforts," said Heath Moenck, Head Cross Country Coach. "Harry and Spencer have run at a high level all year and today was no different. They are both going to be national qualifiers, which is an incredible achievement. Our three seniors, Harry, Shane and Ryan, have laid a solid foundation that will serve our program well for many years to come."

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Although the official list of national qualifiers won't be released by the NCAA until Sunday, the strong performances by Dudley and Moon put the duo in prime position to be selected to compete at the next level. The top seven runners outside of the teams that qualify for the national meet will advance. This would be the first time since 1986 that the Storm would send multiple runners to the Championships.

Men's Results
10. Harry Dudley, 24:44.8
11. Spencer Moon, 24:45.2
43. Louden Foster, 25:24.2
51. Shane Breheny, 25:47.9
58. Ryan Courtney, 26:00.0
77. Noah Nelsen, 26:26.9
92. Andrew Klein, 26:58.9