NORTHFIELD, Minn. – Cornell's Isaac vanWestrienen claimed runner-up honors against a strong men's cross country field at Saturday's Running of the Cows Invitational, hosted by Carleton College.
 
VanWestrienen recorded his third top-three finish in as many meets, taking second out of 315 competitors on Bill Huyck Championship Course. The junior covered the 8K course in 24:55.6, edging Carthage's third-place finisher Jacob Curulewski by .8 seconds.
 
VanWestrienen trailed only Augsburg's Mohammed Bati, who posted a winning time of 24:13.
 
The Rams, ranked No. 6 in the Midwest Region, placed eighth in the 21-team field with 241 points. Cornell ran up against five regionally-ranked squads from the North Region, including No. 14 nationally-rated St. Olaf which won the team title with 72 points.
 
Cornell's scoring five all finished inside the top 100 with four seniors following vanWestrienen. Caleb Schopen crossed 56th (26:33), Fisher Isaacson 68th (26:47), Isaak Hutchings 87th (27:09) and Gabe Hunt 100th (27:18).
 
Ethyn Chesnut was 160th (28:09) and Tyler Bilskie 180th (28:26).
 
Coming up – The Rams compete at Augustana's Interregional Invitational Oct. 19 in Rock Island, Ill.