November 13, 2004

WAVERLY, IOWA . . . Luther College women won the Central Region cross country team Championship with 96 points while Wartburg College seniors Missy Buttry and Josh Moen repeated as individual regional Champions. Buttry won her third straight regional title finishing the 6,000-meter race in 20:17, two minutes ahead of the runner-up. Moen ran the 8,000-meter race in 24:53, 13-seconds ahead of the runner-up. The 2004 Central Regional Championship was hosted by Wartburg College at the Waverly Municipal Golf and Country Club.

The top-four teams from the regional, along with the top-six male individuals and top-four female individuals not on a top-four team, qualify for next Saturday’s National Championship hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire at the Whitetail Golf Course in Colfax, Wis. Joining Luther from the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) are Wartburg’s women’s and men’s teams, which finished second (with 149 points) and third (with 97 points), respectively; Central College senior Beth Cunningham and Loras College seniors Jason Flogel and Dan Winder.

Cunningham finished sixth of 155 runners in a time of 22:54. Flogel and Winder finished 11th and 12th of 147 runners in times of 25:34 and 25:44, respectively.

Luther was paced to a first-place finish behind four top-25 finishers - senior Natalie Retrum finished ninth (23:05), junior Emily Lynch finished 13th (23:10), senior Krista Nelson finished 17th (23:23) and senior Bethany Schiefelbein finished 23rd (23:37). Senior Erin Dunham rounded out Luther’s scoring, finishing 34th in 24-minutes.

In addition to Buttry’s individual title, Wartburg women scorers were sophomore Jill Wagaman (24th, 23:40), freshman Julie Ridenour (32nd, 23:55), freshman Sara Eppley (45th, 24:11) and freshman Bree Ann Reedy (47th, 24:13).

In addition to Moen’s individual title, Wartburg men scorers were junior Keith Solverson (4th, 25:21), sophomore Patrick Johnson (26th, 26:19), junior Ben Carlson (30th, 26:23) and sophomore Kevin Balster (36th, 26:34).

ALL-REGION RUNNERS: The top-35 finishers in both the men’s and women’s race are designated All-Region. Nineteen IIAC runners, including 11 women and eight men, received All-Region honors. On the women’s side, in addition to the five Luther runners, three Wartburg runners and Cunningham, Central junior Jill Rozendaal (11th, 23:08) and Loras freshman Bryna Copes (26th, 23:43) received All-Region honors.

On the men’s side, in addition to the four Wartburg runners, Flogel and Winder, Loras freshman Ben Grant (22nd, 26:13) and Simpson senior Nick Bowerman (33rd, 26:27) received All-Region recognition.

Complete Regional results can be found here.

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