While most of campus was at Chaifetz watching men’s basketball, the cross country team competed in the Midwest Regional, held at the Ashton Cross Country Course in Iowa City, Iowa. The men’s team wrapped up the season with a 12th place finish, the best in their history. However, the women fought hard, but failed to secure a placement.

On the men’s side, Manuel De Backer led the Billikens, finishing 51st overall. Finishing second for the Bills, and 66th overall, was Matt Prest. Neal Fitzpatrick, Lance Mueller, Aaron Duga, Hiob Gebisso, and Dorrian Gordon rounded out the rest of the finishing order.

For the women, Anna Schmitz finished first for SLU, followed by Courtney Link. Megan Kress, Courtney Pfanstiel, Natalie Davis, Ellie Adams, and Hannah Pierson all finished out the running order.

Both teams have younger rosters, with Bell commenting that the women, “… added new freshmen” and “the majority of the [men] are sophomores, so we hope to use this season as a spring board for next few cross country seasons.”

This finish represents a great leap forward for the men’s team, and head coach Jon Bell agrees. “Our 12th place finish at the regional championships caps off a great season for our men. [They] ran within themselves and executed their race plans well. We were as high as 10th in the team standings with 1K to go, but our youth and inexperience over 10K showed, as we faded a little. Despite that, it was our best team finish ever at the regional meet. This result sets up the next two-year window for this group of men. We will continue to set the goal of winning the Atlantic 10 championship and placing even better at the regional championship.”

For the women, Bell is looking forward to improving in the offseason. “This year was a learning year. We had student athletes returning from missing all of last year with injuries. We had others sustain injuries. These are challenges every team faces, and I’m proud of the way our women handled these challenges. All season long they worked hard and tried to overcome these difficulties. They executed their best race plan of the season at the regional meets, so that is a great way to end the season. Our goal for the women between now and next season is to stay consistent with our training and improve our fitness.”