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MASON – Southwestern raced in the Trent Smith Invitational in Mason City at North Iowa Area Community College Oct. 11.
The SWCC men’s team finished 10th against a slew of local southwest Iowa teams also competing in the meet along with Minnesota area schools.
The Spartan men scored 283 points. Minnesota-Duluth scored 27 points as the men’s winner.
SWCC’s Colin Shreve finished 37th at 27:44.2 and Cedrick Watson placed 64th with a time of 28:42.6. Nicolae Vandor was 68th at 28:52.8.
The men’s winner was Benjamin Allen of Conordia-St. Paul, running a time of 26:15.5
For the Spartan women, SWCC finished 12th with 320 points.
Hannah Thompson had the leading time for Southwestern women with a time of 23:58.5 for 73rd. Dani Costain and Brianna Hoffman were 80th and 81st with times of 25:14.5 and 25:37.4, respectively.
“It was definitely our best meet of the year,” said Southwestern head coach Trey Bruton. “Both our men’s and women’s teams had big improvements. ... That was exciting. ... We were one of, if not the only, that got faster as a team time. ... I looked at a couple of our conference competitors because I think we can compete and saw they all got a little slower from normal races. Knowing we’re closing the gap on those teams is exciting.”
Chile Pepper Invitational
Southwestern took a long road trip to Arkansas Oct. 5, running in the Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival in Fayettville, Arkansas.
The Southwestern men placed 32nd in a massive field consisting of 39 schools and 346 runners.
Bruton noted it is likely the biggest field the Spartans will see all season across both sides, including nationals.
“That’s the main reason we went down there,” said Bruton. “To prepare ourselves, and I try to do that every year at least once. ... It was a great meet and it was a fast course. It was a good experience them and we got to see some real high powered teams.”
SWCC’s fastest runner for the men was Watson at 27:52.4. He was 111th in the field.
The overall winner for the men’s was Jeremias Serrano-Velez of Ranger College. He ran a 25:03.5. Texas Southern was the team winner with a score of 141.
Vandor and Joshua Carstens were next across the line for the SWCC men. Vandor ran a 29:29.7 for 205th and Carstens ran a 29:30.6 for 207th.
Shreve ran a 30:11.1 for 236th overall.
The Southwestern women placed 41st with a team score of 1255.
SWCC’s leading women’s runner was Thompson with a time of 23:39.3 for 285th overall. Hoffman and Costain were 325th (25:28.4) and 335th (27:08.0), respectively.
UP NEXT – Southwestern will next run in the Region XI Championship at Cedar Creek Golf Course in Ottumwa to open up postseason action. The meet will take place Friday at 5 p.m.