Seniors Emma Duncan and Nolan Rudd led the charge for the Fighting Bees at the Viking Invitational this weekend, hosted by Grand View University at the DMACC cross country course.

Duncan notched her all-time personal best to collect her second-consecutive individual runner-up finish. Duncan ran a 19:38, improving her time by 18 seconds from two weeks ago.

Four Fighting Bees debuted in their first collegiate cross country races at the Viking Invitational; Julia Beltz ran a sub-23 to place 39th (22:59), Rileigh Fortune crossed the line in 56th (25:33) with Becca Neaterour close behind in 58th (25:49), and Jayne Eilderts finished in 63rd (28:16).

Kylie Mercier followed up her strong race from two weeks ago with another fantastic effort, crossing the finish line in 41st with a time of 23:11.

The Fighting Bees scored a total of 144 points to finish in sixth-place overall at the Viking Invitational. Host Grand View tallied 25 points to finish as the meet champion.

On the men's side, Rudd turned heads as he set a new course and meet record at the Viking Invitational. Rudd's time of 25:17 eclipsed the 12-year-old meet record by eight seconds (Neil Grundman, 2009, 25:25). His time is also the second-fastest 8k time in St. Ambrose school history (Jay Jennessee, 1999, 24:59).

Joining Rudd in the top 10 was Matt Jung, running a 26:03 to finish in sixth-place. George Barton cruised to a 14th-place finish with a time of 26:54, while Lucas Creek cracked the top 20 with a 19th-place finish (27:21). Luke Benes finished out the scoring for St. Ambrose with a 25th-place finish (27:55).

Chris Borschnack finished in 38th with a 28:52, while Dayton Hauger finished 41st with a 28:57. Also running for the Fighting Bees were Noah Maske in 46th (29:35), Bryan Flentge a second behind in 48th (29:36), Brennon Munch in 54th (30:03), Tommy Ashby in 57th (30:08) and Danny Parr in 72nd (31:42).

The St. Ambrose men's collective time of 2:13:33 is the third-fastest team time in St. Ambrose history behind 1999 and 2012. The Fighting Bees tallied 61 points to finish in third place at the Viking Invitational. Host Grand View won the meet with a total score of 38 points.

Next up for St. Ambrose will be the Seminole Valley Stampede on Oct. 9th in Cedar Rapids, Iowa