October
27, 2007
DUBUQUE,
IOWA . . . Behind seven women and seven men finishing
in the top-15, Luther College swept the women and men’s
Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) cross country
Championships at the Dubuque Soccer Complex in Dubuque Saturday.
Luther junior Janet Dobyns and senior Matthew
Busche took home individual titles in 22:10, and 25:31,
respectively, and earned Conference Most Valuable Runner honors.
The
Luther men outdistanced runner-up Wartburg College (38-48) to
capture their second straight title and 29th men’s title
overall. Host Loras College took third with 87 points followed
by Coe with 101 points.
The
Norse women (38 points) posted a 14-point victory over the Knights
(52 points) to earn their IIAC-record 11th title and their fourth
in the last five years. Central College finished third with
87 points followed by host Loras College with 101 points and
Simpson College with 104 points.
Individually,
Busche, who finished sixth each of the past two years, won the
8,000-meter men’s race by 10 seconds over Loras senior
Ben Grant, the race’s defending champion.
Wartburg junior Brian Chenoweth (25:53) took
third followed by Luther junior David McKay
(25:56) and Wartburg senior Andy Hodge (26:19)
in fourth and fifth. Grant became the 16th Iowa Conference men’s
runner to record four top-ten finishes at the Conference meet
while Busche and Hodge captured All-Iowa Conference honors for
the third time.
Dobyns,
last year’s champion and a fourth-place finisher in 2005,
won the 6,000-meter women’s race by 20 seconds over Central
sophomore Angie Berry (22:30). Wartburg junior
Emily VanOosbree (23:08) and Loras junior Mary
Bridget Corken (23:16) placed third and fourth, respectively,
each picking up All-IIAC honors for the second time. Luther
freshman Ericka Sell (23:32) rounded out the
top-five.
Coaches of the Year: Luther coaches, Steve and Yarrow Pasche,
were named Iowa Conference men’s and women’s cross
country Coaches of the Year for the second consecutive year
after guiding the Norse to repeat Conference titles.
Complete
results from the 2007 IIAC cross country Championships can be
found here.
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