FORT DODGE — Southwestern ran on a familiar course at Lakeside Municipal Golf Course Sunday as the men's cross country squad took 28th nationally and picked up an 88th place finish from Greenfield's Shane Breheny.
Breheny finished his season in an all-too familiar place after running state championship races on the course multiple times as a Nodaway Valley Wolverine.
His time of 27:06.4 set the pace for a Spartans men's group that had an average time of 27:52.
"Shane ran great. He is now No. 8 on our all-time individuals list and just cracked the top 20 all-time performances list," SWCC coach Trey Bruton said. "Will be excited to see what he does this track season and he will be a force for us next year during cross country."
Kevin Dietrich was 136th for the Spartan men in a time of 27:37.7. Rounding out the group was Phoenix Shadden of Atlantic (167th in 27:58.5), Jalen Two Leggins (184th in 28:15.0), Nathan Bradley (189th in 28:20.6), Chance Webster (228th in 28:56.6) and Terrell Gibbs (293rd in 30:45.7).
"Kevin and Phoenix both ran well and knocked off time from their performances at regionals," Bruton said.
"We had aspirations of being top 15 and had the talent to do it, we just couldn't get it to click," Bruton said. "However, we finished 28th, which was four spots higher than we were ranked going in, so I can't feel too bad about that."
In the large field of 320-plus, both Bradley and Shadden were knocked down during the race, but recovered well enough in Bruton's eyes.
The Spartan women were led to a 37th place finish by Heather Jessen and her finish in 133rd in a time of 20:36.6.
"Heather ran well," Bruton said. "Was a PR for her. I was super pleased with her and she is excited for next year and plans to put in more work over the summer. "
SWCC's other finishers came in order of Christina Stopak (158th in 20:53.8), Creston's Jessica Beatty (247th in 22:38.0), Sidney native Halie Dean (302nd in 26:25.0) and BreAnn Rhodes (306th in 27:08.1).
Dean and Rhodes both dropped minutes off of their personal bests, and Stopak ran a PR as well.
"I was so proud of them (the women) for how they finished the season," Bruton said. "Going in, there were only a couple teams I thought we had a chance of beating. We beat four teams, so I couldn't be happier with them."
