IW cross-country wraps up season at regionals

The Iowa Wesleyan cross-country teams competed in their final event of the season on Saturday. The Tigers competed in a field of 253 male runners and 255 females runners in the NCAA Midwest Regional Meet. They faced tough conditions, running in 16 degree weather with snow standing on the course.

Sierra Howardson and Allison Morris competed as individuals on the women's side. Howardson completed the 6k in a time of 24:45 and had the third-best time amongst fellow SLIAC competitors and was 118th overall. Morris ended the race with a time of 28:00.

The Tigers had three competing as individuals on the men's side. Joel Amor turned in the best time for IW, finishing the day with a time of 29:07. He placed 203rd and was the 13th fastest member of SLIAC. Nathaniel Townsend ran a 31:34 to finish in 237th place for Iowa Wesleyan. Oscar Martinez was the final Tiger competing for the men. In his last race of the season, he turned in a time of 37:47 which was a personal best.

Head Coach, Chris Creal was pleased with the performance of the Tigers. 'While times may not reflect our results, we had a lot of positives out of the day. Joel was 23rd at the SLIAC meet and Sierra was 7th at SLIAC. Today, they improved in terms of placing within the conference. Allison and Nate both ran consistent. Oscar had a huge achievement, dropping his time to a personal best today.”

Creal continued, 'The temperature was 16 degrees and had standing snow on the course from two days of weather. The course was also a respectable cross-country course in terms of being on a rolling hill golf course. Overall, we are very pleased with how we capped off our first season.”