Titans Cruise To Griak Invitational Title

UW-Oshkosh owned five of the top 10 individual finishers to easily capture the team title at the Roy Griak Men's Cross Country Invitational held Saturday (Sept. 26) in St. Paul, Minn.

UW-Oshkosh, which entered the meet ranked 13th in the NCAA Division III by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association, scored 28 points to defeat 14 other teams. The Titans last won the meet in 2011 and were second-place finishers the past two seasons.

Carthage College finished a distant second to UW-Oshkosh with 104 points. Bethel University (Minn.) placed third with 106, Milwaukee School of Engineering fourth with 107 and UW-River Falls fifth with 126.

Rounding out the top 10 teams were sixth-place Hamline University (Minn.) with 152 points, seventh-place Concordia University Wisconsin with 189, eighth-place Coe College (Iowa) with 194, ninth-place Macalester College (Minn.) with 199 and 10th-place Buena Vista University (Iowa) with 291.

Jordan Carpenter paced UW-Oshkosh by completing the 8,000-meter course in a second-place time of 26:48. Carpenter won last year's race with a time of 25:56.

Charlend Howard finished third for the Titans in 26:53, while teammates Wal Khat placed fifth in 27:16, Joe Zack eighth in 27:38 and Roberto Lara 10th in 27:40.

Matt Berens of Bethel University won the race with a time of 26:30, while Nathan Rock of Hamline University finished fifth of the meet's 157 runners in 27:12.

UW-Oshkosh also had Tyler Miletti place 15th in 28:02, Mitch Pauers 16th in 28:03, Jacob Rost 19th in 28:12, Justin Skinkis 23rd in 28:26, Brian McKnight 31st in 28:38, Trevor Damkot 39th in 29:01 and Fabian Salinas 62nd in 29:47.

UW-Oshkosh travels to South Bend, Ind., for the Notre Dame Invitational on Friday (Oct. 2).