Kusche Takes Greeno/Dirksen Crown

LINCOLN, Neb. - The Nebraska cross country team co-hosted the Greeno/Dirksen Invitational on Saturday with Nebraska Wesleyan for its lone home meet of the season. George Kusche won the men's 8K race, while the Husker men took third as a team with 90 points. The Nebraska women placed fourth overall with 109 points.

Kusche won the men's 8K with a time of 24:12.2. With the victory, Kusche became the first Husker to win a race at the Greeno/Dirksen since Lara Crofford won the women's crown and David Adams took the men's title at the meet in 2010.

"It has been a long journey," Kusche said. "Last season, I came second at this meet, about 40 seconds slower than I was today. It was a long road, so it makes it a lot sweeter to win it today. It felt good and I put in a lot of good training. You are always a bit nervous, because you don't know exactly where you are when opening your season and you don't have a race to determine your shape. Going into the last lap, I felt really smooth, so I knew someone would have to run very well to beat me today. I want to win Big Ten's and I want to make an impact at nationals."

"Kusche winning was just a good individual achievement," Coach Harris said. "George wants to win and we want him to lead our team and win. It was good for him to win our home meet and just shows you his talent. From what I understand, I saw him at the 7K and there were people around him still racing and at the end he was gone. He left the field, and that's a good sign. He looked totally under control and that's what I look for. I am very, very happy for George."

Kusche led the Husker men and Mark Freyhof also placed in the top 10, finishing 10th with a time of 25:04.1. Jordan De Spong was the third Nebraska runner to cross the finish line with a time of 25:31.7 to place 22nd. Ryan Martins set an 8K PR (25:41.4) and was 31st. Karson LeComte rounded out the top-five for Nebraska and was 33rd in a time of 25:46.7.

"I felt like we should try to win our invitational and that is the way all the men felt, but we didn't. Iowa got us and we will face them again. Kansas State got us and they have a good program. It is a work in progress. We are working right now to find out who is our fourth, fifth, sixth man...we know who our first man is and Mark Freyhof is getting better and better. It is going well. I think we all wanted to win our invitational and Iowa was just too good."

Erika Freyhof led the Big Red women for the second meet in a row, finishing fifth in the 5K with a time of 17:33.0. Judi Jones and Elsa Forsberg both placed in the top-14 and placed 12th (17:52.6) and 14th (18:01.8), respectively. Grace Pagone was the fourth Husker to cross the finish line and took 40th in a time of 19:05.4. Kyla Ramsey, a transfer from UC-Santa Barbara, ran a time of 19:01.4 to finish 46th.

"The top three are three very good leaders," said Coach Harris. "They lead this team in practice, they lead us in meets and they are going to continue to do that. We have two seniors and a junior there. Our team is going to go as they go, but we have to have some more depth. We are young and we are trying to get better in practices and from the practices, we will get better in the meets."

Nebraska will return to action on Saturday, Oct. 5 for the Rim Rock Classic in Lawrence, Kansas, at 9 a.m. The Huskers were originally scheduled to run at the Arkansas Chile Pepper Festival, but will now run in Kansas instead, which will give five Huskers the opportunity to compete in their home state.