Published: October 10, 2009 02:01 pm      

LC-M grad Bean shines for Lamar CC unit

Led by Francis Kasagule's ninth-place showing, and former Little Cypress-Mauriceville standout Drew Bean, the Lamar men's cross country teams recorded an eighth-place finish at the Wisconsin adidas Invitational at the Thomas Zimmer Cross Country Course last Saturday morning.

In a loaded field that featured 12 schools ranked in the top-half of their respective regions, Lamar scored 219 points as three runners recorded top 50 finishes.

"It was a great cross country course and we came away from the meet learning a lot about where we are at and that was the whole purpose," LU Cross Country coach Jake Stewart said. "Francis finished ninth in a tough field and Drew Bean had his best day in his Lamar career."

Kasagule's time of 24:08.0 was just 14 seconds out of first place which was claimed by Georgetown's Andrew Bumbalough in 23:54.0. Iowa's Jeff Thode was edged at the line by Bumbalough with his 23:54.8 time.

Bean finished second for the Cardinals as his 24:35.4 personal-record time placed him in 22nd place. His previous best on an 8k course was 25:00 at the 2008 Notre Dame Invitational.

Lamar's next three harriers - Joonas Harjamaki, Bob Ahimbisibwe and Alex De La Garza - completed the 8k course within 70 seconds of each other at 43rd, 66th and 79th place, respectively.

"Our three, four and five also ran well and at some point over the course of the weekend all of our guys said they can run at a higher level for us, which is good to hear," Stewart said.

Aside from the strong performance by Kasagule, the team did finish ahead of Michigan and Auburn in the race, something that has never happened at Lamar.

The team will resume hard training this week before focusing on race training prior to their next meet, the Pre-National Meet, held next Saturday, Oct. 17, in Terre Haute, Ind.