Even amid less than ideal conditions, the UW-Oshkosh men's cross-country team still managed to land two runners in the top ten at the UW-Oshkosh Open last Friday in Winneconne.
Freshmen Mark Allen clinched the Titans' top spot by taking seventh place overall with a time of 27 minutes and 13 seconds, followed by freshman Tim Schraufnagel in ninth place with a time of 27:27.
Nick Limoni of the Wisconsin Track Club won the competition with a time of 25:59. The non-scoring meet, held at Lake Breeze Golf Course, consisted of runners from UW-Oshkosh, the Wisconsin Track Club, UW-Stevens Point and numerous participants who ran without a school affiliation.
Since team scores were not awarded, only seven of the 24 Titan runners competed in the event.
Because some the Titans' top athletes did not participate, it allowed a different group of runners to get in on the action and taste competition, and Mark Allen noticed the different atmosphere.
"We didn't run our top eight or ten runners, so it was a little different not seeing them out there or having teammates in front of me," Allen said. "For some guys, it was their last race so they really wanted to have a good race and get a good time. It was a good final tune-up before the conference meet."
Senior Jeff Baudry took the number three spot for the Titans by finishing behind Schraufnagel with a time of 27:57.
Freshman Brett Denure and sophomore Nick Newcomer finished fourth and fifth for the Titans with times of 28:16 and 28:23, respectively.
Sophomore Brian Peterson (Toluca, IL) and Darius Montazemi (Fr, Minnetonka, MN) anchored the Titans after finishing with times of 28:32 and 29:45.
The UW-Oshkosh Open was the final opportunity for the 18th ranked Titans to prepare for the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship, which will be held in Whitewater on Saturday.
Coach John Zupanc shared the outlook of his team heading into the conference meet.
"Our biggest thing will be how healthy we are," he said. "We have been struggling with flu-like symptoms lately…assuming everyone's healthy, we should place between three and five. We have six ranked teams in our conference. We could place sixth as easily as we could place third."
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