John Dewitt led the Titans with a 12th-place finish
John Dewitt led the Titans with a 12th-place finish

Titans Capture Ninth Place At Brooks Invitational

John Dewitt (Sr. • Oshkosh) finished 12th among 500 runners as the UW-Oshkosh men's cross country team placed ninth at the Brooks Invitational held Saturday (Oct. 13) at the Lake Breeze Golf Club in Winneconne.

Dewitt completed the rain-soaked 8,000-meter course in a time of 25:25. There was an exciting finish for the individual title as Noah Droddy of DePauw University (Ind.) edged Dan Kerr of Calvin College (Mich.) by a half a second. Droddy won the race with a time of 24:49.15, while Kerr finished second in 24:49.75.

UW-Eau Claire owned the next two runners as Jeremy Kieser finished third with a time of 25:04 and Aaron Easker fourth in 25:08.54. Dan Kerley of North Central College placed fifth with a time of 25:08.66.

UW-Oshkosh, which hosted the meet, took ninth place in the team standings with 268 points. Calvin College captured the team title with 52 points, while defending NCAA Division III champion North Central College finished second with 58, UW-Eau Claire third with 93, Washington University (Mo.) fourth with 127 and UW-Stevens Point fifth with 163.

Rounding out the top 10 squads in the 38-team meet were sixth-place Augustana College (Ill.) with 174 points, seventh-place University of Chicago (Ill.) with 221, eighth-place Wheaton College (Ill.) with 224 and 10th-place UW-Stout with 359.

Helping Dewitt form UW-Oshkosh's team score were Kenny Halloran (So. • Mount Prospect, Ill.), Derek Johnsrud (Jr. • Fall River), John Block (Jr. • Madison) and Matt Champan (Jr.• Waukesha). Halloran finished 27th with a time of 25:40, while Johnsrud placed 74th in 26:14, Block 88th in 26:24 and Champan 105th in 26:31.

The Titans also had Mike Foust (Jr. • Oshkosh) finish 121st in 26:39, Jerrod Berget (Jr. • New Richmond) 153rd in 26:56, Ryne Scopp (So. • Kenosha) 191st in 27:15, Jacob Clarke (Fr. • Racine) 198th in 27:16, Matt Lawrence (So. • Plainfield, Ill.) 251st in 27:42, Wilson Tobe (So. • Middleton) 287th in 27:57 and Casey Karpin (So. • Saukville) 311th in 28:14.

UW-Oshkosh returns to the Lake Breeze Golf Club on Friday (Oct. 19) for an open meet.