University of Southern Indiana Men’s Cross Country was edged out by Lewis University to settle for 2020 Great Lakes Valley Conference Runners-Up. This snaps the remarkable 15-year streak of consecutive GLVC Cross Country Titles for the men.
This whole race felt strangely familiar to the GLVC Triangular where the Screaming Eagles were only narrowed out by the Lewis Flyers by seven points. Today, USI and Lewis were going back and forth as live team scores were updated, but in the end Lewis had just enough to claim victory with 51 points to USI’s 57 points. In fact, according to the live results, the last team split at the seven-kilometer mark, before the line, had USI trailing Lewis by a single position.
Senior Gavin Prior led the team like he had once before earlier at the Triangular finishing seventh overall clocking in at 25 minutes, 20.7 seconds. Teammate and junior Noah Hufnagel sprinted closed behind capping off a ninth overall finish for the championship.
Seniors Wyat Harmon and Grady Wilkinson were side by side as they placed 11th and 12th respectively directly ahead of a pair of Lewis runners. Next, sophomore Braden Nicholson the last Eagle to score, found the line coming in 18th place, again just nipping a Lewis runner before the line.
Junior Cameron Cox rounded out the top 20 and freshman David Heinemann finished in 25th to complete top seven for USI.
It was a heartbreaker today for USI not only for the fact that the team standings were so close, but this will also conclude the 2020 USI Cross Country Season due to the cancellation of the NCAA II Midwest Regionals and NCAA II Championships earlier this year.
One last bright note, the Eagles had four runners recognized for their outstanding performance today.
Four All-GLVC:Â All runners who finished 15th place or better were named All-GLVC, so that includes Prior (seventh), Hufnagel (ninth), Harmon (11th) and Wilkinson (12th).
