Do you remember those old cartoons where the coyote could never quite catch up with the roadrunner? Well, at the Loras College Tucker Invitational on Oct. 12, in Dubuque, Iowa, the Fighting Scots cross country team was the roadrunner and the opposing runners, the coyote.

The men finished second overall, led by sophomore Clay Staley who finished 2nd in the 8k with a time of 26:19. Right after him was senior Adam Rodriguez with a time of 27:38, followed by sophomores Damon Bautista in 27:35 and Brad Begyn in 27:42. Sophomore Matt Peharda and senior Seth Leitner were next at 28:18 and 28:23. The biggest improvements were made by two freshmen. Derek Huff ran a 28:45 race, and Alan Rosiquez came in at 31:26. Both runners clocked-in season bests by more than a minute.

The women placed fourth overall. Freshman Mary Kate Beyer blazed a trail, finishing second in the 6k with a time of 23:48. Sophomore Katie Staab ran a season 6k best of 24:36, finishing in 13th place. Sophomores Amy Aghababian, Jayme Ayers and Kalie Schreiner also ran solid races.

Of the upcoming Midwestern Conference Championships, Coach Roger Haynes says, “We will have to run well with our front two runners for each team and our pack from three to seven will need to stay close together and run their seasons’ best if we hope to do well in the team race. The top 20 runners in each field make the all-conference team. We certainly hope to have multiple runners on each side achieve that honor.”

Freshman runner Drew Petersen says, “We’ve had a good season and it’s only going to get better.”        

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