Championships Webpage
DUBUQUE, IOWA . . . Behind seven women and seven men finishing in the top-15, Luther College swept the women and men's Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) cross country Championships at the Dubuque Soccer Complex in Dubuque Saturday. Luther junior Janet Dobyns and senior Matthew Busche took home individual titles in 22:10, and 25:31, respectively, and earned Conference Most Valuable Runner honors.
The Luther men outdistanced runner-up Wartburg College (38-48) to capture their second straight title and 29th men's title overall. Host Loras College took third with 87 points followed by Coe with 101 points.
The Norse women (38 points) posted a 14-point victory over the Knights (52 points) to earn their IIAC-record 11th title and their fourth in the last five years. Central College finished third with 87 points followed by host Loras College with 101 points and Simpson College with 104 points.
Individually, Busche, who finished sixth each of the past two years, won the 8,000-meter men's race by 10 seconds over Loras senior Ben Grant, the race's defending champion. Wartburg junior Brian Chenoweth (25:53) took third followed by Luther junior David McKay (25:56) and Wartburg senior Andy Hodge (26:19) in fourth and fifth. Grant became the 16th Iowa Conference men's runner to record four top-ten finishes at the Conference meet while Busche and Hodge captured All-Iowa Conference honors for the third time.
Dobyns, last year's champion and a fourth-place finisher in 2005, won the 6,000-meter women's race by 20 seconds over Central sophomore Angie Berry (22:30). Wartburg junior Emily VanOosbree (23:08) and Loras junior Mary Bridget Corken (23:16) placed third and fourth, respectively, each picking up All-IIAC honors for the second time. Luther freshman Ericka Sell (23:32) rounded out the top-five.
Coaches of the Year: Luther coaches, Steve and Yarrow Pasche, were named Iowa Conference men's and women's cross country Coaches of the Year for the second consecutive year after guiding the Norse to repeat Conference titles.
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