Lara Flores leads BU Men at Greeno/Dirksen

Results

LINCOLN, Neb. -- Jose Lara Flores produced his best race of the young season at Saturday's Greeno/Dirksen Invite, leading the Bruins to an eleventh-place finish in the field of 17 teams (non-NCAA DI). Lara finished in 69th overall in the combined field of 315 runners with a time of 26:04.9, a personal best and just outside the top ten times in Bruin history for 8 kilometers.

The meet, hosted by UN-Lincoln and Nebraska Wesleyan, at Lincoln's Mahoney Park Gold Course was run under less than ideal conditions with warming temperatures, high humidity, and soft ground following overnight rain. Though the men ran together in a single race, results were tabulated in two divisions: Red for NCAA Division I and Gold for all other divisions. Lara was 33rd in the Gold Division as the top Bruin runner, followed by freshman Jack Brown, 69th in 26:52.7. Senior Luis Casallas made his 2025 debut in 86th at 27:12.6, followed closely by Xavier Mallow, 88th with a 27:14.6 clocking. Griffin Kipchumba rounded out the Bruin scorers, placing 95th in 27:35.4. Next for the Bruins were Robbie Siford, running a lifetime best 28:00.2 in 120th, and freshmen Trey Larson, 28:24.8 in 140th, and Cody Fikar crossing in 157th and 28:48.3. Alejandro Corona-Martinez completed the Bruin squad with his 225th place finish in 32:35.1.

In their eleventh-place team finish, the Bruin men averaged 27:00 per man, an improvement of 22 seconds from last year's Greeno Invite.

Head Coach Craig Christians: "We're a better team from a year ago, even with some missing guys, and that's exciting. Tough day to run today, but our toughness is one of the things we are working on, so this was a good little exercise. I thought every man passed that test today, and I was proud of the effort. We are running as a group. That's what makes cross country special, and our guys are buying in."

The Bruins get right back into action as they travel to Columbia, Mo., for the Gans Creek Classic next Friday, Sept. 26. That meet will again feature a number of strong NCAA teams as well as some nationally ranked NAIA teams.