Despite finishing eighth in last weekend’s Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships, the Warhawk men’s cross country team’s head coach Jeff Miller said he was pleased with how his team ran.
“Going into the meet, we know we’re a young and inexperienced team,” Miller said. “We knew that seventh was probably the best we could do. Dawson [Miller] PR’d and Kevin [Buntman] PR’d, so some guys definitely ran well.”
Dawson Miller finished with a time of 26:07 Saturday, which was fifteen seconds faster than the previous season best and put him in 38th place overall. Buntman recorded the second fastest time for the ’Hawks, running at 26:11. Quinn Farley was the only other runner to finish in the top 50 for the team, with a time of 26:31.
UW-Stout’s Tim Nelson won the 105 runner-race for the second year in a row, crossing the line at 24:34, which was 25 seconds faster than the second place finisher. UW-La Crosse finished first in the meet with a team score of 30. The title for the Eagles was its 31st in program history.
The ’Hawks may have not finished amongst the top of the WIAC this fall, but the overall team youth is something they can look forward to. Seven runners ran for the ’Hawks during the Championships, and junior Buntman was of the highest academic standing.
Dawson Miller’s time of 26:07 was the season best for the ’Hawks, and he said he was happy with the time.
“It wasn’t as easy a course as we thought it was going to be, so I was pleased with my time,” Dawson Miller said.
The ’Hawks last race as a team this year will be the NCAA Division III Midwest Regional. Jeff Miller said that he’s hoping the team will run well, despite the possibility of no runners moving on to compete at the National Championships.
“With the 40 teams there, we obviously want to be better than half of them,” Jeff Miller said. “Realistically we’re looking to finish top 15 or 20. If we were top 10, we would be running phenomenally.”
The Midwest Regional is on Nov. 10 at 11 a.m. at Lake Breeze Golf Course in Oshkosh, Wis.
