PEORIA, Ill. — The IU Kokomo men's cross country team turned in arguably the greatest performance in program history Friday evening at the Bradley Pink Classic, rewriting the school record books with a new individual 8K record, three runners surpassing the previous program mark and new team records for total time and average time.
Competing in the Men's White 8K Race at Newman Golf Course, the Cougars finished seventh with 217 points, recording a school-record combined time of 2:09:30 and an average of 25:54 across their top five runners. Both marks shattered the previous program records, improving the total time by 3 minutes, 35 seconds and the average by 43 seconds.
Sophomore Karter Jackson led the historic effort, finishing 26th overall with a time of 25:13.8 to establish a new IU Kokomo 8K school record. Jackson broke the previous record, which had stood for five years, by an impressive 52 seconds.
Senior Drew Lovelace followed with a personal-best time of 25:36.1 to finish 39th overall, becoming the second-fastest 8K performer in program history while recording the second-fastest time ever run by a Cougar. Steven Case also delivered a career-best performance, crossing the line in 47th with a time of 25:50.1, ranking third on both all-time lists.
Jackson, Lovelace and Case all surpassed the previous school record, marking the first time in program history that three IU Kokomo runners have broken the 26-minute barrier in the same race.
Daylen Schrock continued the record-setting night with a personal-best time of 26:14.1, finishing 74th overall. His performance moved him into sixth among IU Kokomo's all-time 8K performers and seventh on the program's fastest-times list.
Aden Pierce rounded out the Cougars' scoring five, placing 94th with a personal-best time of 26:35.2 to become the 10th-fastest performer in school history. Rudy Bowman and Ayden Potts completed IU Kokomo's top seven, finishing 98th and 136th, respectively, with both recording career-best times.
The personal records extended throughout the Cougar lineup, as Ian Dockery, Jaxsen Muncie, Magnus Thorstenson, Benjamin Wallace, Avery Condo and Nick Tomaszewski also established new career bests.
"This was by far our best team effort in school history. It was exciting to watch, and I am very happy for our guys," said IU Kokomo head coach Josh Colvin. "We know that it is OK to be happy, but we are not satisfied and have lots of work still to do. Our hope is that we can go down to Knoxville next week and keep this rolling. We have never had a guy run sub-26:00, and now we have three in one race. All three guys — Karter, Drew and Steven — broke the old school record that stood for five years."
Cougars Men's Results (8K)
Karter Jackson — 25:13.8
Drew Lovelace — 25:36.1
Steven Case — 25:50.1
Daylen Schrock — 26:14.1
Aden Pierce — 26:35.2
Rudy Bowman — 26:41.3
Ayden Potts — 27:12.4
Ian Dockery — 27:15.2
Jaxsen Muncie — 27:48.4
Charlie Conkle — 27:54.3
Magnus Thorstenson — 28:07.8
Benjamin Wallace — 29:19.9
Connor Frederick — 29:27.0
Avery Condo — 30:30.6
Nick Tomaszewski — 31:17.6
The Cougars will look to build on their historic performance next Friday, October 23, at the NAIA Appalachian Challenge in Knoxville, Tennessee, their final competition before the River States Conference Championships.
For the latest news, updates and information on the IU Kokomo Cougars, fans can visit IUKCougars.com. Fans can also stay up to date on the latest Cougar news by following @IUKAthletics on Facebook, X and Instagram.
