St. Peter, Minn. – Gustavus men’s cross country alumni stole the show at the Linnaeus Arboretum, taking the top four spots in the annual alumni meet Saturday morning. Current Gusties rounded out the rest of the top ten, as well as taking spots 11 through 13. The alumni came out on top in the team score with 22 points, while the 2012 Gustie squad finished with 35 points, and Bethany Lutheran College tallied 84 points.
Ross was the official winner with a time of 17:08., however, he and fellow alumnus Anders Bowman `12, James Sorenson `05, and John Leaf `09 all crossed the finish line at the same time and recorded times within five tenths of a second of each other on the official sheet. Leighton Becher (So., Woodbury, Minn.) was the only current Gustie to crack the top five. He crossed the line in fifth place with a time of 17:21.9.
Becher was happy with how the day went. “It was good. There weren’t a lot of teams, but the alumni were strong,” he said. “It is nice to get to test the legs early in the year, and everyone looked good today.”
The 2012 Gusties captured the rest of the top ten, taking places six through ten. Finishing sixth was Eric Jorgenson (Jr. Maple Grove, Minn.), and following him was Adam Lund (Sr., Burnsville, Minn.), Chad Claybaugh (Jr., Excelsior, Minn.), Joseph Renier (Jr., Cambridge, Minn.), and Matt Carlson (So., Roseville, Minn.), respectively.
Head coach Dale Bahr was encouraged by his teams’ performance today as well. “It is early in the season, so we aren’t at our best, but I still like to see them come out and compete,” he stated. “I think we accomplished that today, and they looked good.”
The Gustavus men’s cross country team will compete at the Saint John’s Invitational in Collegeville, Minn. next Saturday morning, where they will look to finish in the top three for a second straight year.