LOWELL, Mass. — Leading the way, senior Jan Wouter Van Den Akker (Groningen, Netherlands) helped the River Hawks finish in 11th place in the men's 8k at the Wisconsin Pre-National Invitational.  

"The men's team took a nice step forward this week. Beating some teams that beat us a few weeks ago at Paul Short," said Head Coach Gary Gardner. "They also beat 9 regionally ranked teams from other regions that were ranked higher than us." 

At length, Van Den Akker would clock in at 24:22.3, making his way into the Top 25, finishing in 17th place.

Following Van Den Akker, graduate student Hunter Marion (Templeton, Mass.) crossed the line with a mark of 24:40.8 placing in 41st-place while senior William Benoit (Fairhaven, Mass.) stayed attached finishing in 45th place at 24:41.9. 

Gardner also mentions, "Wouter, Will, and Hunter really excelled great to see. Going to be fun when we add a few guys we were missing today."

Also competing in the men's 8k, graduate student Henry Farrington (Essex Junction, Vt.) (78th, 25:06.8) and junior Ethan Mashtare (St. Albans, Vt.) (102nd, 25:18.9) were followed by graduate student Joseph Young (Dorchester, Mass.) (137th, 25:54.7) and senior Landen Vaillancourt (New Ipswich, N.H.) (154th, 26:21.7).

Competing in the men's 8k open race, one River Hawk had made his mark in sophmore Keegan Tierney (East Greenwich, R.I.) when placing 77th at a time of 26:10.4.

The River Hawks will now move on to the CCSU Mini Meet which is next Friday, October 25 in New Britain, Conn.