Despite being without several of its top runners in a meet laden with nationally-ranked small college programs, the University of Minnesota Duluth still managed to come away with a 13th place finish at the 25-team University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Blugold Invitational Friday afternoon in Colfax, Wis.

St. Olaf College won the team championship with 48 points while host Wisconsin-Eau Claire took second (52) in the 8K event, which was held at the Whitetail Golf Course.

"Considering that some of this teams top runners didn't compete at the meet, I was pleased with the result," said UMD head coach Paul Nisius. "Most of the team responded well in the cool conditions today after a tough race last week at the (University of Minnesota's) Roy Griak Invitational. Three of our top five finishers were freshmen; our top three placers were within 12 seconds of each other; and our 4-8 runners were within 15 seconds of one another -- those things were encouraging to see."
 

UMD, which as team totaled 341 points, was led by junior Drew Johnson, whose time of 26:35.6 was good for 60th overall in the 410-runner field. Freshman Blake Anderson was next at 69th (26:45.7), senior Mitch Zuidema was 72nd (26:47.0), freshman Grant Pulver was 92nd (27:01.1) and another rookie, Cody Sedbrook was 95th (27:02.2). Close behind were junior Joey Erickson (99th; 27:06.6), sophomore Seth Hare (100th; 27:07.2) and junior Ted Heikkila (114th; 27:16.2).

The Bulldogs will reconvene on Oct. 18 for the Jim Drews Invitational, hosted by UW- La Crosse in Ettrick, WI.2014 Blugold Invitational Results