FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Clark Teuscher, Sports Information Director, 630-637-5302

Results

WARRENVILLE, Ill. (Sept. 27, 2013) - Returning to the same course for the second time in as many weeks, the North Central College men's cross country team put its familiarity with St. James Farm to good use Friday, as the Cardinals claimed first place in a 20-team field at the College of DuPage Invitational.

With many of North Central's veteran competitors resting this weekend in advance of next Friday's Notre Dame Invitational, several other Cardinals took advantage of the opportunity to chase victory in Friday's meet. North Central turned in a total of just 21 points, well clear of the runner-up University of Illinois-Chicago's score of 47. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee took third place with 80 points, followed by the University of St. Francis (103) and the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (145).

North Central's Brent Gaither was the meet's individual champion, crossing the finish line of the 8,000-meter (five-mile) course in 25 minutes, 38.1 seconds at the front of a field of 200 finishers. Gaither's time was nearly a minute faster than he ran on the same course less than a week earlier, and he was followed by teammate Ken Hoffman in second place (25:44.4), while A.J. Laskowske placed fourth (25:48.7).

The Cardinals' Matt Muth and Luke Nally completed the team's scoring, placing sixth (25:58.4) and eighth (26:10.2), respectively, while Juliano Lodi also cracked the top 10 with a ninth-place finish (26:11.5). Ryan Thompsen rounded out North Central's top seven with a 15th-place showing (26:28.2).

North Central competes in the 57th annual Notre Dame Invitational next Friday in South Bend, Ind. The Cardinals will compete in the men's Gold Division race, which is set to begin at 2:45 p.m.