The Monmouth College Cross Country teams ran in Grinnell's Les Duke Invite on Saturday in Iowa. 

The men finished in sixth place with a team score of 154, six points behind William Penn. Senior Xander Stoub (Palos Heights, Illinois) had the best finish as he ran 27:46,2 to finish in 18th place. Andrew Peterson (Galesburg, Illinois) finished in 26th place with a time of 28:12.6. Fernando Avila Rubio (Alpha, Illinois) finished in 32nd place at 28:35.9, just ahead of freshman Dawid Opiola (Arlington Heights, Illinois) in 34th place at 28:41.3. Wyatt Hall (Oneida, Illinois) ran 29:40.0 to finish 44th, Jack Wayne (Yorkville, Illinois) finished 46th in 30:53.3 just in front of Riley Morgan (Jewett, Illinois) with a time of 30:53.8 Braden Rees (Galesburg, Illinois) finished 128th with a time of 33:12.3 and Larry Kamara (Alpha, Illinois) ran 35:51.8 to finish 140th. 

The women did not get a team score and were led by senior Melissa Bivolarov (Arlington Heights, Illinois) who finished in 45th place with a time of 26:31.3. In her first college 6K, Freshman Morgan Sheley (Lincoln, Illinois) finished in 71st place with a time of 28:48.7,      

"It was exciting to get the freshmen to race at 6K and 8K for the first time and reintroduce the distance to our returners," said head coach Cooper Pauley. "Grinnell has a pretty tough course and i thought our team responded well to the challenge. We're ready for the next two week block and see some improvements in training before our next meet."

MONMOUTH MOMENTS: The Scots last ran at the Les Duke Invite in 2023 and only Stoub and Bivolarov were on the team…Stoub was 90 seconds better than his previous run on this courts while Bivolarov was nearly three minutes better on Saturday than her time at the previous Les Duke…This was the first 8K race for Peterson, Opiola, Hall and Wayne and the first 6K race for Sheley…Hall made his college debut…Both teams will run next at Central's Dutch Open in Pella, Iowa on Friday, September 25.