The Gustavus men’s cross country team hosted Bethany Lutheran College at the Gustavus Invitational on Thursday, September 1, and defeated the Vikings by the score of 15-to-50 at the Linneaus Arboretum in St. Peter, Minn. The Gusties took home the top eight places as senior Mark Bartley crossed the finish line first with a time of 16:57.2, over one minute ahead of the next runner.
“He’s done some really good training,” Gustavus Head Coach Dale Bahr mentioned of Bartley after the men’s race. “He’s looking very strong. He’s got a great attitude towards his training. He knows it’s important to get some mileage in, but he also knows it’s important to be racing well because let’s face it, through the season if you’re not racing well, you’re not building a lot of confidence.”
The following Gusties placed second through eighth, consecutively:
2. Dillon Emo – 18:03.3
3. Leighton Becher – 18:30.6
4. Tanner Davenport – 18:41.3
5. Jon Kasprisin – 18:48.3
6. Adam Lund – 18:55.3
7. Eric Jorgenson – 18:57.4
8. Alex Thornton – 19:02.7
David Blumer was Bethany’s top runner finishing with a time of 19:26.2.
“The men ran very well today,” Bahr acknowledged. “We held a few out. We’ve got some sickness spreading across both men and women, but the men’s team had about ten guys out that are either sick or a little banged up. But we did a very hard workout earlier this week, which we kind of put our focus on. Our men that did run went out and challenged themselves on a nice warm day and they ran well. It was nice to see.”
The Gustie men travel to Collegeville, Minn. on Friday, September 9 for the Saint John’s Invitational. The 8K race will begin at 4:45 p.m.