Marcoux is top BU finisher in his Bruin Cross Country debut

Bruin junior Richard Marcoux, a transfer from North Iowa Area CC, was the top finisher at Friday's Bill Buxton Invitational. He narrowly missed a Top Ten podium finish by a scant 0.1 seconds, getting nipped at the line by a Loras College runner at the finish line.

The rolling terrain of Pickard Park outside Indianola, Iowa, was the site of Friday's meet hosted by Simpson College. Race start times had been pushed back two hours in an effort to avoid extreme heat, but runners still faced temperatures in the upper 80's and high humidity, tough conditions for a distance race.

Marcoux started strong and hovered around the tenth position throughout the race. He had dropped to 13th with 200 meters to go, and a furious finish moved him past two runners but just missed the Top Ten spot. His eleventh place finishing time of 20:02.4 was a Bruin school record for 6K (3.75 miles) by ten seconds.

Collin Kotz and Edrei Murillo were just outside a top half finish with their 31st, and 32nd place finishes in the field of 57 finishers. Their finish times were 21:33.1 and 21:34.5, respectively. Aaron Newton was ten spots back in 41st in 22:43.6 to complete the Bruin competitors.

Head Coach Craig Christians: "Richard ran a gutsy race today as he challenged the pack of very talented runners from Simpson and Loras right from the start. He had a fantastic summer of training, and I like how his season started today."

The Bruins will return to action in two weeks when they compete at the very competitive Greeno/Dirksen Invite in Lincoln on September 17.