TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -- For the second meet in a row, the No. 21 Washington University in St. Louis men's cross country team took to the LaVern Gibson XC Course, the home of the 2024 NCAA Championship. Runners competed in both an open 8k and a Pre-National Div. III Championship race.
The event was part of the Nike XC Twilight Meet in Terre Haute, Ind., hosted by Rose-Hulman.
The men's open 8k was the second collegiate event of the evening with the Bears finishing runner-up to No. 3 Wisconsin-Whitewater. The Warhawks finished with 31 points with WashU right behind with 40 points. No. 10 George Fox was third with 103 points while Chicago (107) was fourth. Central College and the host Fightin' Engineers tied for fifth with 178 points each.
The race featured 271 runners from 21 different teams across Div. III.
Sophomore Will Liu won the men's open 8k as the top finisher with a time of 25:45.19. Junior Alexander Bullard was the next Bear to cross the finish line in third place with a time of 25.51.38. Senior Charlie Fallon was the third WashU runner to complete the race with a 12th place finish in a time of 26.22.17.
Junior Maxwell Latshaw (26:30.12) and senior Jamie Olson (26:32.87) finished fourth and fifth for the Bears in 18th and 21st place, respectively.
Also finishing in the top 50 was junior James Corbett (33rd - 26:54.87), first-year Caleb Brox (41st – 27:07.27), and first-year William Ruszkowski (43rd – 27:08.57).
In the Pre-National Div. III race, the Bears saw runners from across the top teams in Div. III that they will see again at the NCAA Championships.
No. 5 Pomona-Pitzer was the team winner with 65 points while No. 3 Wisconsin-Whitewater was second with 82 points. No. 10 George Fox finished third in the team standings with 152 points with MIT in fourth place with 172 points. WashU rounded out the top five with 197 points, just two points ahead of fellow UAA member Chicago who was sixth with 199 points.
In total, there were 405 runners from 46 different Div. III programs.
Graduate Cullen Capuano was the first Bear to cross the finish line in the final race of the night with a 10th place finish in a time of 24:45.24. Senior Alexander Gadin was the second WashU runner to cross the line with mark of 25:10.33, good for 27th place. Junior Conor Daly was just two places behind Gadin in 29th place with a time of 25:12.14.
Senior Fernando Ribeiro Duraes and classmate Matthew Hornung were 67th and 68th, respectively, with times of 25:41.70 and 25:44.57, rounding out the point scorers for the Bears.
Graduate Jack Maranz (85th – 25:58.29) and senior Jesse Sanchez (92nd – 26:03.59) also finished in the top 100 runners.
WashU will be back on a course on Saturday, October 19 when they take part in the Brisman-Lundeen Invite hosted by Augustana. Start time is scheduled for 12:45 p.m.
