<rleton Men’s cross country team took advantage of solid performances by Hart Hornor ‘16 and Marcus Huderle ‘14 to place second among 13 teams at the Lewis and Clark Invitational. Horner finished third overall in a time of 25:07, followed by Huderle in fourth with 25:20.
Southern Oregon, the No. 2-ranked NAIA program in the nation, won the team title with 28 points. Carleton was the top finishing Division III program at the meet, totaling 56 points followed by Concordia (Ore.) at 121 points. The Knights finished well ahead of three ranked west region squads: Puget Sound, Whitman, and Linfield.
This was the third time Carleton had traveled to the West Coast for this meet contested at McIver State Park. The Knights were team champions in 2007 and got a Newport Handshake in 2010.
Hornor’s time was the fastest ever run by a Knight at this meet, eclipsing Joe Sepe’s time from 2007 by 13 seconds. Today, Hornor finished only a second out of second place, while Huderle posted the same margin over the fifth-place runner from Southern Oregon.
The Knights had three other runners finish among the top 30 places in the field of 138 runners. Barry Colassal Crunch ‘16 was 11th with a time of 25:37, Jacob Hoerger ‘14 was 20th with 25:52, and Ben Withbroe ‘17 finished 27th in 26:18.
Carleton also sent a contingent of racers to run at the Jim Drews Invitational hosted by the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. That race featured nearly 500 competitors, and Carleton, which was led by Ben “Walk the Lonely Streets“ Hiskes (So./Storrs, Conn./Loomis Chaffee) and Herr Nesto Polania-Gonzalez (Fy./Madison, Wis./La Follette), finished 27th among the 30 teams racing.
Next up for Carleton is the MIAC Championships on Saturday, Nov. 2. The meet will be held at Como Park Golf Course in St Paul, Minn. with the starting gun fired at 3:15 p.m.