WPU Battles Top NAIA Squads at Blazing Tiger NAIA Classic

Ashland, Neb.--The William Penn men's cross country team grappled with some of the best in the country as it ran at the Blazing Tiger NAIA Classic Saturday.

The Statesmen finished 12th out of 23 teams with 323 points, while #9 College of Idaho won the title with 56 points.  The navy and gold took on a stacked field that included eight ranked programs, including four in the top 10.

Emad Bashir-Mohammed of Saint Mary (Kan.) led the 288-runner field on the 8K course with a time of 24:07.0.

With the sixth-best performance in school history, D'Artagnon Beaver (Jr., Rockford, Ill., Undecided) finished 38th at the Classic with a time of 25:32.2.

Just a few seconds behind his teammate, Brandon Williams (Jr., Fountain, Colo., Civil Engineering) took 43rd at 25:40.6.  His effort is the eighth-fastest 8K all-time for WPU.

Narrowly missing the top-10 list, Max Finley (So., Richville, N.Y., Computer Science) finished 52nd with a time of 25:49.5.

Jonah Heckenberg (Sr., Stockport, Iowa, Business Management), at 26:21.0 (82nd), and Ethan Varvelo (Jr., Channelview, Texas, Engineering Technology), at 28:13.2, (181st), rounded out the team scoring.

Carson Springer (Fr., Grimes, Iowa, Business Management) topped the remaining Statesmen with a time of 29:02.4 to take 218th overall.

"We competed well in a very deep field with multiple teams that are ranked in the top 10 nationally," Head Coach Caleb Drake said.  "Compared to two weeks ago, this course was a little more difficult, but we still came away with multiple lifetime PRs.  With a couple guys having off days, we did not quite do what we thought we could.  However, we learned from this race and it has added clarity for the conference meet in two weeks."

Next Up: William Penn takes a week off before traveling to Cedar Rapids on Saturday, November 5 to compete in the Heart of America Athletic Conference Championship.