News Release Date:
Saturday, September 26
WALLA WALLA, Wash. -- The Whitman College men’s cross country team, missing a few of its parts, finished sixth in the 8,000 meters at Saturday's Erik Anderson Cross Country Invitational in Spokane, Wash.
"We were decimated by illness on the men's side today," Whitman coach Malcolm Dunn said.
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| Cory Rand |
Among those absent were senior captain Matt Kelly, who was taking graduate school exams, as well as freshman Hugh Parker and sophomore Sam Hennessey, both out due to illness. Those three finished first, second and fourth, respectively, for Whitman two weeks ago at the Lewis & Clark Invitational.
Freshman Cory Rand led Whitman in today's race, finishing 20th in a time of 27:20.58. Next in line came freshman Alfredo Villasenor, who was 33rd in 27:53.47, and senior captain Curtis Reid, who was 34th in 27:55.48.
"Curtis is really coming back to the form that he had toward the end of last year and it was very, very encouraging to seem him race well," Dunn said. "It looks like he’s back in good form."
Freshman Taylor Mesojednik (43rd, 28:15.128) and junior John Callow (49th, 28:31.348) rounded out Whitman’s top five.
As a team, the men finished sixth with 155 points. Still, Dunn found the results encouraging.
"They did as well as they could as a team considering they were missing a large part of the top half of the scoring group," he said. "Taylor, Curtis and Cory in particular really stepped up and helped out with the team scoring."
Junior Dan Luecke, who ran the race as a workout because of lingering illness, finished 50th in a time of 28:32.123 to lead the second half of Whitman’s top ten. Next came sophomore Brendan Boyer (64th, 29:10.672), sophomore Yonas Fikak (69th, 29:31.234), freshman Whitney Griggs (80th, 30:37.351), and senior Terrence Reid (81st, 30:45.974).
Sophomores Erick Aguayo (87th, 34:08.222) and Seth Smith (88th, 36:28.666) also ran for Whitman.
Dave Marks, running for Lewis-Clark State, won the race in 25:53.701, leading his team to a blowout victory with 25 place points.
Whitman next runs in the Charles Bowles Cross Country Invitational at Bush Park in Salem, Ore. on Saturday, October 3rd.
Report by Andy Jobanek, Whitman Sports Information Intern
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CONTACT: Dave Holden
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