The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh men’s cross-country team took seventh place with 196 points at the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference cross-country championship at Whitewater on Saturday.
UW-La Crosse won the meet, posting a score of 26 points. UW-Platteville and UW-Stevens Point tied for second place with 64 points.
Titans’ coach John Zupanc said the team was disappointed in the outcome of the meet.
“Obviously we were really disappointed,” he said. “We just had a bad set of circumstances. We’ve been battling illness. We had five guys in the top seven hurt or sick this weekend.”
Senior Josh Hoff was also unhappy with the outcome.
“We were very, very disappointed,” Hoff said. “I would have never thought that we would have been seventh out of nine teams.”
Zupanc said it was tough for the team to perform its best without its top runners at 100 percent.
“Having three out of five starters in basketball out, you’re in trouble, and that’s what we ran into,” he said.
Senior Dusty Dorshurst was out with an ankle sprain, freshman Jonathan Wylie had been out for a week with walking pneumonia, freshman Jordan King had flu-like symptoms, and junior Andrew Vos was battling the effects of a cold.
The Titans were paced by sophomore Nate Stymiest, who finished with a time of 26:36, good for 29th place.
Freshman John Dewitt took 34th place, finishing the race in 26:42.
Hoff placed 40th, sophomore Mike Jarchow took 45th and senior Ben Wizner finished in 48th place for the Titans.
The team is off until the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III Regional meet on Nov. 14th, which will be held at Oshkosh’s home course, Lake Breeze Golf Club.
Hoff said the team was excited to be on their home course for regionals.
“We race really well on our home course,” Hoff said. “We’ll have a good fan base out there and we’ll be running with a chip on our shoulder. But more than anything I think a lot of the teams in our conference don’t really expect us to do anything, so I think we’re going to be pumped up and ready to race.”
Oshkosh takes seventh at WIAC Championship
Published: Thursday, November 5, 2009
Updated: Thursday, November 5, 2009 00:11
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