ROMEOVILLE, Ill.– The Drury men's cross country squad had their best team finish and their best individual finish in 14 years at the NCAA-II Midwest Regional Championships on Saturday in Romeoville, Ill.
The Panthers finished sixth in the 27-team field, a three spot improvement from last year, and is 11 places better than their finish two seasons ago. Drury finished with 227 points, 23 points better than seventh-place Walsh. Grand Valley State won the regional title with 40 points, while Lewis was second with 71, and Michigan Tech came in third with 141 points.
Tyler Harris had Drurys's best individual finish at the regional since 2010 as the sophomore from Springfield (Kickapoo HS) came in seventh in the field of 191 runners. His time of 31:10.52 ranks second all-time at Drury in a 10-kilometer race. Harris was one spot away from an automatic berth to the NCAA-II National Championships.
Santiago Nunez was 47th with a time of 32:08.81, the fourth best time in program history, and
Colby Garner was 50
th (32:13.38, 8
th best ever at Drury).
Kyle Keltner came in 61
st, crossing the line in 32:24.63, the ninth-best time for a Panther, and
Topi Alahuhta was right behind him in 62
nd (32:26.29, 11
th best ever at DU).
Trent Peterson ran the 14
th best time ever at Drury, posting a time of 32:49.29 to finish 82
nd, and
Ethan Haynes was 119
th with a time of 33:29.80.
At-large bids to the NCAA-II National Championships for teams and individuals will be announced next week. This year's national championship event is scheduled for Nov. 23 in Sacramento, California.
Complete Results
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