ResultsMINNEAPOLIS – The Bethel University men's cross country program can now boast three individual victories at the prestigious Roy Griak Invitational, along with a top three team finish.
Matt Berens won the race of 153 runners for the second time in his own career while all five Bethel scoring runners finished within the top 31. The Royals used a pack running technique to near perfection as the group of next four runners after Berens ran together, and somewhat cautiously through the first mile and then built from there.
"Packs are an amazing thing in cross country," said Royals first-year head coach
Joe Stephens, who was competing with his fourth different school at the Griak Invite. "They really help you finish high as a team and I was so proud of how the guys executed the strategy and got it done."
Berens led from the start and maintained his lead all the way through winning by an incredible 18 second margin at 26:30. The next four Royals were led by senior
Tom Ritter who finished 22nd at 28:26. Ritter and the rest of the pack consistently sat in the high 20's and low 30's through the first half of the race before the pack moved up and passed several runners ahead of them. Freshman
Evan Hatton was third for Bethel in 24th place while junior
Connor Haugen was next at 28th and Anders Rasmussen, a freshman was the fifth Royal at 31st. Also competing for Bethel was freshman
Sam Nelson who finished in 36th while
David Huffman was 54th.
"This men's team is continuing to impress me with their composure as they have great leadership in
Tom Ritter and
Matt Berens," said coach Stephens. "Those guys, from a tactical view, really set the right tone and pace in a race and that's a big reason of why we were able to be successful today. It was just a great team race today and I am so impressed with the teams finish."
Berens, who missed all of 2014 with an injury, won the race in 2013 and Dan Greeno also was a victorious Bethel Royal back in 2008. In addition to Berens and Greeno, Marie Borner won the women's race in 2009 on her way to an NCAA individual title that year as well.
Coach Stephens and the Royals will get back to work this coming week with an exciting result and improvement to fuel them.
"I really want us to get back to a good couple of weeks of training now," he explained. "Our focus is going to be to go back to ground zero and start working hard again because its hard work and dedication that has got us to this point. So now we've got to have a good couple of weeks with more of that and down the road we will get the benefit."
