Harber, No. 10 TU Men Take Third at Crossroads League Championship
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UPLAND, Ind. – The 10th-ranked Taylor men's cross country took team third place in a tight race at the Crossroads League Championship on Friday, led by a third-place individual finish from Luke Harber.
TU notched a team score of 70, which slotted the Trojans just two points behind the runner-up, No. 6 Indiana Wesleyan, and 12 points back from the champion, No. 9 Spring Arbor.
Harber ran a strong race in which he hung with the frontrunners throughout, and his time of 25:02.8 came up just 10.1 seconds short of IWU's Eli Fullerton's winning time. It also placed him a mere 0.2 seconds behind the runner-up, Dean Reynolds of SAU.
Ryan Hanak and Joel Mumaw crossed the finish line with times just north of 25:30.0 to take 12th and 13th, respectively, which were good enough to join Harber as All-Crossroads League performances.
Alex Ortiz took fourth on the team with his 25:49.8, and Jared Stayte stayed under 26:00.0 to round out TU's contributing team times.
Nathan Burns and Jordan Burden were amongst Taylor's top seven as they finished within the top 30 overall, while Zach McWatters, Bryce Noble and Ethan Morgan all completed the race in under 27:00.0 to make it 10 Trojan runners inside the top 50 of 133 individuals.
No. 10 Taylor (74-13) is expected to see its name posted on Monday at 7 p.m. ET when 2024 NAIA Cross Country Championship qualifiers are announced on NAIA.org, as the team prepares for the national meet in Columbia, Missouri, on Nov. 22.
