ETTRICK, Wis. – The Gustavus men’s cross country team took a sixth place finish out of 20 squads at the Jim Drews Invitational Saturday, hosted by the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse at Ettrick Golf Club.
Evan Jones (Sr., Pella, Iowa) led the Black and Gold, finishing in 14th place with a time of 25:53.16.
As a team the Gusties finished with 186 total points with an average 8k time of 26:42 and a team total time of 2:13:29.
“We were definitely off a little bit again,” said Head Coach Dale Bahr. “We did not look as strong as what we were hoping and felt a little flat. No reason for alarm, we still ran well but not to our ability or our expectations. All in all, we can’t be upset”
The Gustavus top-seven included Jones, Thomas Knobbe (Sr., Decorah, Iowa), Carston Dammann (Sr., Lake City, Minn.), Alex Wischnack (So., Norwood Young America, Minn.), Ryley Sandberg (Jr., Polk City, Iowa), Alex Fredrickson (Sr., Victoria, Minn.) and Sam Benson (Sr., Moorhead, Minn.).
Jones, Knobbe, Dammann and Wischnack each finished in the top-50 out of 369 competitors.
- 19th, Knobbe (26:11)
- 30th, Dammann (26:38)
- 49th, Wischnack (27:08)
“We have a couple guys that were not happy with our race all together, but we showed some good strength. Some of our front runners just weren’t feeling up to par today,” Bahr commented.
Next up the Golden Gusties prepare for the MIAC Championships, held at Como Park in St. Paul, Minn. two weeks from today.
“The first thing we need to do is figure out why we haven’t been running real strong these last couple of meets,” said Bahr. “During this part of the season, we put in a lot of volume so we have to back down our training a little bit. They will respond, they know where they need to be and what the expectation is.”