Briley leads Spartans in opener

INDIANOLA — Southwestern cross country coach Scott Vicker is excited about the 2025 season after a strong 2025 debut at the Bill Buxton Invitational Friday.

Three promising freshmen are joining two local runners with experience from last year’s team that finished 22nd at the NJCAA National Championships.

Those two sophomores led the Spartans Friday at Pickard Park in Indianola. Brandon Briley of Creston placed seventh in a time of 19:57, 30 seconds faster than last year on the same course. It was announced Wednesday that Briley has been honored as an Iowa Community College Athletic Conference Athlete of the Week.

Former East Union runner Jacob Driskell took 57 seconds off of his 2024 performance there by finishing 13th in 21:25.9.

As a team Southwestern topped Graceland University for third place with 74 points. Host Simpson College, led by runner-up James Johnson in 18:58.2, won the meet with 20 points. A team of Simpson alumni runners took second with 48 points, led by 2023 10K national champion Spencer Moon as the overall winner in a blistering 18:33.6.

“We knew that Moon was a special runner and the top two from Simpson’s current team would also be out front, but we thought Brandon could be right in the mix in that next pack and he was, despite having some back tightness during the race. For Brandon to run that kind of time on a tough course this early is a sign of good things to come. I was thrilled with Jacob’s race. His consistent training going back to last fall and last spring really paid off with huge improvement. He’s taking another step forward this fall.”

Three Southwestern freshmen also finished in the top 20 overall — Owen Martin of Hopkins, Missouri and the duo from Mandarin High School in Jacksonville, Florida, Ramzi Ben Haj Belgacem and Erik Lash. Although most collegiate races are 8 kilometers, compared to 5K in high school, this race was run on a 6K course.

“Those three freshmen are all pretty inexperienced in cross country and they learned some valuable lessons in Friday’s race,” Vicker said. “I gave them a pace to go out at that was perhaps a little ambitious, and they went out faster than that and paid for it later in the race.

The Spartans travel next to Lincoln, Nebraska, for the Grenno-Dirksen Invitational on Sept. 20, there they’ll compete against a deep field from all levels of collegiate cross country.

Bill Buxton Invitational

Team scoring — 1. Simpson College 20; 2. Simpson Alumni 48; 3. Southwestern CC 74; 4. Graceland University 110.

Individual leaders — 1. Spencer Moon, Simpson Alumni, 18:33.6; 2. James Johnson, Simpson, 18:58.2; 3. Cole Leggett, Simpson, 19:08.7; 4. Ryan North, Simpson, 19:49.3; 5. Doug Berg, Simpson, 19:53.0.

Southwestern (74) — 7. Brandon Briley, 19:57.5; 13. Jacob Driskell, 21:25.9; 17. Owen Martin, 22:57.8; 18. Ramzi Ben Haj Belgacem, 23:03.8; 19. Erik Lash, 23.:11.5.