Men's cross country prevails in rain

Despite rain, wind and even two delays caused by lightning strikes in the area, the men’s cross country team prevailed in Saturday’s University of Delaware Invitational. “It was an absolute mess,” Head Coach John Izzo said. “We were in the jaws of Ivan. It was very, very wet. The best thing about the weekend was that we accepted the adversity and rose above it.”After the weather settled down enough to race, the team managed to defeat Division III teams from Richard Stockton College, Lincoln University and Wilmington College. Had they been scored against the Division I and II teams in the meet, they would have been third overall, behind only the University of Pennsylvania and Delaware. They would have beaten Hofstra University, Delaware State University and Morgan State University. “The two Division I teams that beat us were pretty good teams,” Izzo said.Senior Dan Duett led the way for UR, finishing the eight-kilometer race in 27:53 to win among the Division III runners. Second for the Yellowjackets and second overall was sophomore Andrew Whitbeck, who ran 28:23. Junior Chris Nolan finished in third place, running 28:29. With a time of 29:08, junior Kevin McGettrick came in fifth overall. Rounding out the scoring was freshman Nick Roosa, who was sixth with a time of 29:18. Freshman Dan Mueller and junior Chris Clark took seventh and eighth places, although they did not factor in the scoring. “We ran well, but runners like to see good times which was difficult to do this weekend,” Izzo said.In one of the most important races of the season, UR will travel to St. Lawrence University this weekend, where they will run the same course that will host NCAA Regional Championships. “All of the top teams in the region will be there,” Izzo said. We’ve been training very well, and this week we’re measuring ourselves to see where we are right now.”Swidler can be reached at dswidler@campustimes.org.