Results
West Salem, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's cross country team captured the 42nd Annual Jim Drews Invitational Saturday afternoon at Maple Grove Venues, LLC. The Eagles won their 12th Drews title in school history with 32 team points.
Paradise Valley Community College (Ariz.) was second with 113 points followed by MSOE (Wis.) third with 114, Lakehead University (Canada) fourth with 137 and St. Olaf College (Minn.) fifth with 206. Ripon College, Wis. (208), Wisconsin Lutheran College (229), The College of St. Scholastica, Minn. (234), Luther College, Iowa (285) and Bethel University, Minn. (286) rounded out the top-10. A total of 27 teams competed.
Isaac Wegner (left) placed fourth and Ethan Gregg (right) fifth in Saturday's invitational.
UWL placed five runners in the top-nine in helping lead it to the team title.
Isaac Wegner was fourth overall with a time of 25:20.5 on the 8,000-meter course while
Ethan Gregg placed fifth with a time of 25:20.5 and
Luke Chaffin sixth at 25:21.9.
Will Aurit finished eighth (25:24.6) and
Jayden Zywicki ninth (25:27.8).
It is Wegner's third top-eight finish in the Drews Invitational and Gregg's third top-seven showing. Wegner was eighth in 2021 and fifth in 2022 while Gregg placed third in 2021 and seventh last season.
Ten other runners placed in the top-25 for UWL, giving the Eagles 15 of the top-25 overall.
Aidan Matthai was 12th (25:36.1),
Corey Fairchild 13th (25:36.3),
Zach Slevin 14th (25:39.6),
Grant Matthai 15th (25:39.7),
Parker Huhn 16th (25:43.9),
Adam Loenser 18th (25:47.3),
Ben Stangel 20th (25:53.5),
Joe Sullivan 23rd (25:59.6),
Elias Ritzke 24th (25:59.7) and
Alex Strojny 25th (25:59.8).
The Eagles had three more runners in the top-50, including
Chris Wolfe 28th (26:03.4),
Aidan Manning 30th (26:04.6) and
Austin True 40th (26:22.9).
UWL's
Mason Brown finished 55th (26:35.6),
Owen Klaus 60th (26:42.9),
Riley Huss 62nd (26:45.5),
Reed Anderson 64th (26:49.3) and
Alec Taylor 79th (27:08.0).
Mohammed Bati of Augsburg University (Minn.) won the individual title (24:44.3). A total of 368 runners completed the race.
UWL is second in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) NCAA Division III rankings released October 11.
Drews won four Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) titles in cross country (1970-73). He also earned three National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) All-America accolades, placing sixth in 1971, ninth in 1972 and 13th in 1973. Drews was selected to the All-WIAC Team in 2011 and to the WIAC Hall of Fame in 2018.
UWL returns to action Friday, October 20 at the Luther College (Iowa) Dual. The Eagles travel to the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Championships Saturday, October 28 at Prescott (Wis.) High School.
