WARRIORS RUNNER-UP IN RANKED FIELD
CRESTON – In a field that included three ranked squads, Indian Hills men’s cross country shined despite tough conditions, finishing in second at the Spartan Classic, hosted by Southwestern Community College in Creston.
The No.15-ranked Warriors toppled NJCAA Division I No. 10-ranked Highland and were edged out by Division II’s top-ranked squad in NIACC in the final team standings.
“This was arguably one of our better performances in program history, beamed IHCC head coach Brent Ewing. “The times don’t show it due to the heat and hilly course but I’m really proud of the final team results.”
“Coming into the meet, we were ranked 15th and Highland was ranked 10th in the NJCAA D1 polls. Our goal was to beat Highland, added Ewing. “I was surprised that we beat Highland by 50 points. That’s a big gap for a small meet.”
Ewing also noted the overall improvement in positioning as it pertained to facing No. 1-rated NIACC for the second consecutive event.
“We raced them at our season opener at Grand View a few weeks back and finished a ways behind them. Losing to them by just a few points at the Spartan Classic shows how much this team is improving and how competitive they are.”
IHCC was again led by freshman, Nick O’Connor. The Clear Creek-Amana prep seems to be settling in as the team leader as he finished fourth on the leaderboard, clocking in at 28:23.21 over the 8k course.
“Nick has done a great job of establishing himself as a leader for our program,” Ewing said.
In fact, the youth movement with IHCC is taking hold as five of their top seven finishers were freshman. O’Connor’s classmates, Colten Glosser (7th), Christopher Metz (8th), Isaac Bryan (10th) and Alex Danels (14th) all scored for the Warriors, joining sophomores Ethan Mesenbrink (6th) and Cade Curphy (25th).
“Our spread between our top five finishers was just over 90 seconds, Ewing noted. “Having that many freshmen in the mix is certainly something that we’re excited about.”
Indian Hills will go back to work at practice for about a week and a half now before lacing them up for the Trent Smith Invitaitonal, hosted by NIACC on October 9. The Warriors will go out at 5:15 p.m. that afternoon in Mason City.
2. Indian Hills
4 Nicholas O'Connor, Fr 28:23.21
6 Ethan Mesenbrink, So 29:19.21
7 Colten Glosser, Fr 29:27.15
8 Christopher Metz, Fr 29:28.67
10 Issac Bryan, Fr 29:55:54
14 Alex Danels, Fr 30:47.36
25 Cade Curphy, So 32:41:92
Warrior Notables:
32 Tayler Young, Fr 34:09.28
34 Seth Emmons, Fr 34:32.03
37 William King, Fr 35:54.48