Lopers Dominate at Meadowlark Hills

10/16/2020 7:18:00 PM

Kearney, Neb. – The Nebraska-Kearney cross country teams both came in first at the UNK Invitational Friday evening at Meadowlark Hills Golf Course.

This rare home meet helped replace the Bethel College (Kan.) Invitational which was postponed last weekend. The event featured a 5k (women) and 8k (men) with the competition being several Kansas junior colleges; Cloud County, Dodge City, Hutchinson and Northwest Tech. 2020 UNK Invite - Loper Women

On the women's side Iowa senior Maddie Bach (18:44.9) and Imperial senior Destiny Reinke (18:45.6) finished first and second, respectively. Both earned All-MIAA honors last year with Reinke also being All-Central Region.

UNK won despite having several runners out due to injuries. The Cloud Thunderbirds were thus a close second (35) with Hutch (77) and Dodge (82) well behind. Rounding out the Loper top five was Ulysses junior Sinclare Fiala (7th/19:29.9), Surprise sophomore Allie Frasher (9th/19:43.6) and Omaha sophomore Hannah Pollan (12th/20:04.4).

A pack of Loper men ran the 8k pretty much together with McCool Junction Luke Stuckey leading the way (3rd/25:22.4). Cloud sophomore Habtamu Geta won thanks to a 25:07.3.

Thanks to its depth UNK (25 points) easily was well ahead of the field. Hutch (62) was runner up with Cloud third (68). Dodge (91) and Northwest Tech (129) rounded out things.

Behind Stuckey, a 2019 All-Region selection, was Ainsworth sophomore Ben Arens (25:25.2), Lincoln sophomore Masen Louviere (25:25.37.8) and Surprise junior Eli Frasher (25:38.4). Kearney junior Cole Willis (25:38.6) was UNK's final scorer with Juniata junior Justin Vrooman (25:40.6) close behind.

The Lopers head to Wichita for the Newman Team Championships in two weeks. That'll serve as a qualifying meet for the D2 National Invitational in mid-November.

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