Senior Justin Brueggemann, after holding back in the pack for much of the race, blazed to fourth place out of 99 runners this past weekend in a South Dakota cross country meet.

The Wayne State cross country runners made the trip to Madison, S.D. for the Herb Blakely Invita­tional and 5-mile race. The men’s team wound up fifth while the women’s team placed sixth.

“Going into the race the team had great workouts. I was so ex­cited to see what the team could do,” Brueggemann said.

Brueggeman stayed half way back in the pack for a lot of the race. At the two-mile mark he was in 17th place. Right after the half way mark, he started to pick his way up to fourth.

Coach Marlon Brink was pleased with how well his fresh­man runners are doing this early in the season.

“Our two freshmen, Jack Doughty and Cortland Cassidy, have been very impressive. They will only get better with this added confidence,” Brink said.

Cassidy, a graduate of Logan View High School, had an impres­sive outing in his first five-mile race. He finished third on the team behind seniors Brueggemann and Nick Fly.

Top performers for the men were Brueggeman (26:43), Fly (27:49), Cassidy (29:23), Corbin Lehn (29:46), Doughty (30:01), Nick Schmit (30:15) and Joey Black (31:16).

Junior Andrea DeSimone paced the women’s squad with a 16th-place finish in the three-mile race with time of time of 20:13.

“It felt really good. I felt like I ran a really smart race,” DeSimone said.

“Andrea had a very good race. She improved her time by over a minute from 2013,” Brink said.

Other top performers for the wom­en were Molly Kingsley (20:40), Shelby Connett (21:23), Melissa Kroll (23:16), Ellen Wulf (25:48), Grace Black (30:06) and Sarah Post (31:16).

The Wildcats will resume training this week while they get ready for the 30th annual Roy Griak Invita­tional in Falcon Heights, Minn. This is one of the largest collegiate cross country meets in the United States. The teams will make their way to the Les Bolstad Golf Course on Sept., 26.