Thomas Knobbe led the Gusties again on Saturday, coming in 32nd place in a field of 446 runners.
Ettrick, Wis. – The Gustavus Adolphus men’s cross country team turned in a score of 392 to finish in 14th place at the 2014 Jim Drews Invitational held at the Ettrick Golf Club on Saturday morning.
Winning the meet was the University of Minnesota with a score of 55 after placing its top five runners within the top 15 in the meet. Iowa Central finished runner-up with 81 points and host UW-LaCrosse rounded out the podium in third with 98.
Thomas Knobbe (So., Decorah, Iowa) and Paul Nordquist (Jr., Edina, Minn.) led Gustavus individually as the only members of the team to crack the top 50 out of a field of 446 runners. Knobbe finished 32nd with a time of 26:00 and Nordquist came in 45th with a time of 26:21.
“The men took it out hard and looked good today,” said head coach Dale Bahr. “There were some really good individual performances and I was impressed with the focus we came in with and how we competed today. Thomas is really setting himself apart from most of the runners in the conference and region and ran very well today and is improving each and every race and that is the case with the rest of these guys as well. They may be young, but they’re showing a lot of poise and are really running with some good confidence.”
Elisha Kipruto of Iowa Central won the race with a time of 24:31. Kipruto’s teammate, Frankline Touni, the 2013 Jim Drews champion, finished second in 24:34 and St. Olaf’s Grant Wintheiser placed third for the second year in a row with a time of 24:38.
Today’s meet served as Gustavus’s final competition before the MIAC Championships that will be held in two weeks. The 2014 MIAC Championships will take place on Saturday, Nov. 1 at Como Park Golf Course in St. Paul.
“We’re very excited about where we’re at, but we’re not satisfied with what we’ve done so far,” said Bahr. “Conference is coming up and I think we’re going to surprise some people and are really expecting some great things from these guys as we get into the latter part of our season.”