The Anderson University men’s cross country team finished 13th in the 38-team NCAA Div. III Cross Country Championships on Saturday in Terre Haute.

Kirk Saunders led the Ravens with a 28th place finish in a time of 26:42.45 and Jake Wyatt was right behind him in 29th place in 26:45.81. Both were named All-Regional after finishing in the top 35 places.

“We held our own,” said AU coach Scott Wilson. “I thought that we would be 15th – 10th and we ended up 13th. We had two outstanding runs. Kirk was the third freshman in the race and ran steady and moved up the whole way. Jake had his best race as a Raven in my opinion and left everything out there. Overall, as young as we are it was a good experience. There is always things you can do better, but we are moving in the right direction.”

Other AU finishers were Bill Digman (57th, 27:17.43), Jeff Vibbert (101st, 27:54.12), Eric Linn (147th, 28:31.70), Taylor Holmes (149th, 28:34.02) and Emby Duncan (157th, 28:44.26).

The Anderson University men’s cross country team finished second at the nine-team Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships on Saturday in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Kirk Saunders led the Ravens with a seventh place finish in a time of 26:58 and was named the Freshman of the Year as well as to the All-Conference team.

Taylor Holmes (8th, 27:03), Bill Digman (9th, 27:03) and Jake Wyatt (10th, 27:15) were also named All-Conference and Jeff Vibbert (20th, 28:22) was named HM All-Conference.

Other AU finishers were Eric Linn (22nd, 28:27), Andrew Abbott (27th, 28:46), Matt Dougherty (33rd, 28:56), Emby Duncan (34th, 29:01), Drew Beaty (36th, 29:14), Matt St. Amour (38th, 29:22), Marc St. Amour (47th, 29:41), Kyle Schmidt (56th, 30:18) and Dan Malloy (62nd, 30:50).

Manchester won the meet with 21 points, followed by Anderson (53), Franklin (74), Rose-Hulman (79), Defiance (147), Hanover (183), Mt. St. Joe (inc.), Bluffton (inc.) and Transyvlania (inc.).

For complete meet results go to: http://www.runningtime.net/Races/XCHeartland2009/MenOver.htm

The Anderson University men’s cross country team finished second in the eight-team Manchester College Invitational on Saturday in North Manchester.

Taylor Holmes led the Ravens with a fifth place finish in a time of 26:36 and Kirk Saunders was right behind him in sixth place in 26:38. Bil Digman was also in the top 10 with a ninth place finish (26:53).

Other AU finishers were Emby Duncan (23rd, 27:58), Andrew Abbott (25th, 28:06), Eric Linn (29th, 28:20), Drew Beaty (33rd, 28:32), Marc St. Amour (35th, 28:35), Matt St. Amour (43rd, 29:01) and Dan Malloy (59th, 31:20).

“We made a step forward with this meet,” said AU coach Scott Wilson. “We had several people run personal bests today, which was good to see. We have two more weeks to conference and I think that we can make another step forward for that meet.”

For complete results go to the Manchester website at http://www.manchester.edu/Athletics/crosscountry/stats/stats2009/2009mcinvite.pdf

The Anderson University men’s cross country team finished 17th in the 21-team Notre Dame Invitational on Friday in South Bend.

Bill Digman led the Ravens with a 74th place finish in a time of 26:32. Other AU finishers were Kirk Saunders (88th, 26:51), Jake Wyatt (100th, 27:13), Taylor Holmes (119th, 27:46), Emby Duncan (126th, 28:09), Eric Linn (128th, 28:15) and Andrew Abbott (129th, 28:16).

“Our men ran a steady race,” said AU coach Scott Wilson. “We had several personal bests which is a good sign. We are a young team and adjusting to an 8K race takes time. I know they are putting in the work.”

AU runs at the Manchester Invitational on Oct. 17 at 11 a.m.

The Anderson University men’s cross country team finished seventh in the 14-team Indiana Intercollegiates meet on Friday at Indiana State University in Terre Haute.

Kirk Saunders led the Ravens with a 13th place finish in a time of 27:12. Other AU finishers were Bill Digman (24th, 27:41), Jake Wyatt (28th, 27:49), Ryan Daugherty (42nd, 28:14), Andrew Abbott (50th, 28:47), Matt Doughterty (52nd, 28:50) and Taylor Holmes (56th, 28:59).

“This was a good test for us,” said AU coach Scott Wilson. “It was good to see our team in action over a full length (8K) and we will get better over the course of the season. We are training pretty well so we hope to see progress in the coming weeks.”

AU runs next at the Notre Dame Invitational on Oct. 2 at 2 p.m.

The Anderson University women’s cross country team finished fourth in the five-team Wabash Invitational on Saturday in Crawfordsville. The Raven men were fifth.

AU women finishers were DeLong/Moffitt (6th), Bordner/Reiff (13th) and Terrill/Clevenger (21st). DeLong ran mile times of 5:58, 5:58 and Moffitt’s marks were 6:11 and 6:16.

AU men finishers were Saunders/Wyatt (8th), Duncan/Dougherty (14th) and Holmes/Digman (15th). Sanders ran mile times of 4:56, 4:52, 4:50 while Wyatt’s marks were 4:57, 5:06 and 5:02.

“We gave a good effort,” said coach Scott Wilson. “The teams here today are good, but at looking at our individual results we did ok.  This meet is part of the process of training and racing.  We just need to keep working at it each day.   We get to test ourselves at real race distance at our next meet.”

AU runs at the Indiana Intercollegiate meet in Terre Haute on Sept. 18 at 3:30 p.m.