Fifty-five athletes from six schools competed in the men’s 7th annual Prairie Star Invitational on the campus of the University of Illinois at Springfield on Friday, September 9. The Blackburn College men’s team raced seven athletes and finished in sixth place in the overall team standings. Host, UIS, captured the first five individual places and took first place with a perfect score.

The top three Blackburn runners lowered their mile pace in this race from last week’s season opener even though the race distance increased from six to seven kilometers. Senior captain, Quentin Smith, turned in an impressive performance, running the course in 30:26, which represents a sub-seven-minute-per-mile pace. Freshman, Cody Moore, was the second Blackburn finisher with an impressive race of his own, finishing in just under thirty-two minutes. Luis Alvarado gave his second consecutive strong performance and finished third for Blackburn in 32:35. Tate Kunzeman, running his first-ever cross country race while filling in at the last-minute for Trent Raby who fractured his foot, turned in a gutsy performance and finished fourth for Blackburn. Will Killion completed the scoring for Blackburn as the fifth finisher for the team.

Coach Al Sturgeon said, “It was great to see Quentin, Cody, and Luis run so well today. They are progressing well, and it will be fun to see how they develop. We missed Locke Hord who was out of town for a family event, but he is right there with them, which gives us a good foursome to work with. I was especially impressed with Tate. It isn’t easy to suddenly race over four miles, but he showed not only great talent to pull that off, he more importantly showed the heart of a competitor to take the race seriously and give it his best.”

The team will participate in the Beaverthon 5k during Homecoming Weekend on September 24, but the next official meet is not until the Border War XC Championships at Principia on Friday, October 7.