Team makes strides in bad weather

Friday was one of the gloomiest days of the school year. It was cold, rainy, and windy. But the bad weather did not stop the men's cross-country team from participating in the Notre Dame Invitational in South Bend. Despite lackluster running conditions, the team took a turn in the right direction.\n"The course was sloppy and the footing was bad but it was fun because we got a little dirty," junior Chad Andrews said. \nThe team finished where it thought it would, said freshman Tom Burns.\n"The weather slowed the course down but it did not really hurt or help us."\nThe third place finish by the Hoosiers featured several strong performances. Andrews was the first Hoosier into the chute, finishing ninth. The course, which was supposed to be slower under the weather conditions, did not slow Andrews down. He finished with a time of 24:43, an impressive 30 seconds faster than the year before. The second, third and fourth places for IU were within three seconds of each other. Sophomore Bart Phariss, Burns and junior Chris Powers finished 23rd, 24th and 25th, respectively. \n"This was an average meet and there is still work that needs to be done," Burns said. "There is still a lot more to come."\nSophomore Jeff Zeha finished the scoring for the Hoosiers, placing 34th. Also racing for the Hoosiers was freshman Kurtis George (47th), sophomore Nathan Purcell (60th), senior Josh Trisler (61st) and sophomore Rob DeWitte (89th).\nNotre Dame won the meet and Utah State finished second. The Hoosiers were able to beat their Big Ten rival Ohio State and in-state rival Butler. Butler finished fifth and Ohio State came in seventh.\n"We knew Utah State had a solid team," Burns said. "They had three really good guys and they had the race of their lives. They gave Notre Dame a run for their money and Notre Dame is top five in the nation."\nThe team is running well, but not at the level it can, said coach Robert Chapman.\n"We had a better mental focus going in and a better performance, but we're still short of being that full national caliber team that we're capable of being," Chapman said. "There have been individual breakthroughs, but we need a faster learning curve where we're taking bigger steps. Next week, that is what we need to do, but our performance here is definitely encouraging"