09/16/06

The man in front of you. Just concentrate on him. Focus on catching him. And don't look back.

That guy's thinking the same thing.

And so it went over the 8,000 meter course at Saturday's Concordia-Mequon Invitational in Mequon, Wisconsin.

It's not uncommon for teams to finish in hailing distance of each other in the points standings at a meet. But within six points? And THREE teams that close?

In a finish that would be difficult to describe who chased whom across the finish line, host Concordia-Mequon pulled out the victory with a team score of 43 points, four points ahead of second place St. Scholastica with Ripon (Wis.) College only two points behind the Saints in third place.

Their finish was a big improvement for the Saints from their 2005 results at the Mequon Invite where St. Scholastica was fifth after totaling 142 points.

Sophomore Jason Kask was the first Saint across the finish line this year as he finished in second place overall with a time of 28 minutes and 10 seconds.

Other Saints finishing in the top ten were Tyler Kjorstad, whose seventh place time of 29:43 was a personal record, and Joe Stromsness (8th, 29:43).

In the team race, the Saints leapfrogged a Ripon team that had finished 13 points ahead of them at the season's opening race, the Tom Barry Invite in Green Bay, Wis.