Warrenville, Ill – The Wheaton cross country teams hosted the 2024 Gil Dodds Invitational on Saturday morning at St. James Farm Forest Preserve. The Thunder women's team placed second in a 19-team field, while the Wheaton men placed seventh out of 18 teams.

UW-Platteville finished first in the men's team standings with 61 points, with Carthage in second place scoring 73 points. North Central tallied 76 points in the third place, DePauw finished fourth with 109 points, and Wabash rounded out the top-five with 152 points. Manchester University scored 164 points in sixth place, Wheaton was seventh with 188 points, Illinois Wesleyan tallied 234 points in eighth place, Aurora was ninth with 245 points and Elmhurst rounded out the top-10 with 288 points.

Three unattached runners finished first-through third respectively. UW-Platteville's Caden Schneider was the top collegiate runner in fourth place with a time of 25:10.90 on the 8K course. Wabash's Brayden Curnutt placed fifth in 25:24.50, followed by Manchester's Connor Havens in sixth place. Sam Elsen was the top runner for the host Thunder with an effort of 25:45.00 in seventh place.

Wheaton junior Luke Wertz finished 42^nd in 26:40.40 followed by Joshua Cross in 69^th place with an effort of 27:15.40. Sheldon Powell posted a time of 27:26.10 in 76^th place, followed closely by Gabe Praasma in 77^th place with a time of 27:10.10. Josh Steiner placed 87^th in 27:35.90 followed by Braedon Veurink in 96^th place with a time of 27:46.10.

The Thunder compete next Saturday at UW-Parkside's Lucian Rosa Invitational.