By Brendon Paucek, UWEC Sports Information
Rock Island, ILL. (Blugolds.com) – On a near perfect day for a cross country meet, the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire men's cross country team raced to the occasion. The Blugolds placed 4th out of 36 teams at the NCAA Midwest Regional Championship, and qualified for the NCAA National Championship for the 5th consecutive year.
Four Blugolds finished with All-Region honors. Namely, standout Darin Lau (Sr. – Eau Claire, WI/Immanuel Lutheran) finished as Midwest Regional Champion, completing the 8,000m course in 23:22. Lau's effort is also a new school record, surpassing former Blugold Josh Thorson's record of 23:57.
"He looked so relaxed and at ease," said Coach Schwamberger. "It's exciting that he can add that to his resume, but it should have him pretty confident going into next week."
Riley Huffman (Sr. – Oshkosh, WI/North), Kyler Lueck (Germantown, WI/Wisconsin Lutheran), and Brendon Paucek (Sr. – Sullivan, WI/Jefferson) all finished with All-Region honors and ran career bests. The trio finished 23rd, 29th, and 34th, respectively. For Huffman, it was an improvement on his 33rd place finish in 2016.
Coach Dan Schwamberger was happy with the effort. "The plan going in was to put ourselves in better position early than we did at conference," he said. "They did a really good job; it was definitely our best race to date."
Rounding out the Blugold squad were Sam Kuhlmann (Jr. – Shorewood, WI/Shorewood), Anthony Dupont (Jr. – Mendota Heights/Henry Sibley), and Dylan Lueck (So. – Germantown, WI/Wisconsin Lutheran), who also each ran career bests and finished 46th, 51st, and and 68th.
It's been a long season; however, the Blugolds believe they've saved their best races for last. The men's cross country team will travel to Principia College to compete in the NCAA Division III National Championships, where they intend to add another strong team finish to the program's history books.
"Top 10 is a very realistic goal, but if everything clicks and we run smart, being a podium team is definitely possible."
The men will race on Saturday, November 18 at 11 AM.
