SOUTH BEND, Ind. - The IU Indianapolis men's cross country team continued its ascent as the Jaguars showed increased progress at Notre Dame's Joe Piane Invitational on Friday (Oct. 4). Senior Grant Moon made his season debut and led the Jaguars to the finish line in a time of 24:29.6. Two freshmen making their varsity debuts also factored among the team's top seven runners as Riley Nixon was the team's No. 4 finisher and Joey LaPatra was the Jags' No. 6 runner. 

Head coach Justin Roeder continues to add pieces to the lineup with championship season approaching as Moon made a strong debut. Behind him, Matt Mitsch continued to shine with a time of 25:06.2, just ahead of freshman Luke Shappell's time of 25:12.6. 

"All around we had a great team showing," Moon said. "We fought hard and showed a lot of improvement from Shelbyville and the goal is to keep the ball rolling the rest of the season. We have a lot of young guns that have really started to flourish and I'm super excited to see them keep progressing."

Nixon represented one of the new, young guns with a time of 25:26.0 and one of the veterans, Mitchell Gits, rounded out the scoring group at 25:41.2. LaPatra crossed at 25:49.3 and redshirt freshman Noah Price clocked a personal best time of 26:46.0. Ethan Walsh (26:47.4) and Andrew Blake (27:31.7) wrapped up the Jaguars' entries in the Gold Division. 

Akron's Bismack Kipchirchir won the race in a time of 23:18.0, clearing second-place Dominic Kiptum by more than 20 seconds. Wisconsin-La Crosse coasted to the team title with 41 points, easily outdistancing second-place Western Ontario by 86 points. 

In the open race earlier in the day, Jay Pillai and Nicholas Probst both ran new personal best efforts. Pillai placed 70th overall in a time of 25:54.3 to shed two minutes off his prior best and Probst also shed more than two minutes with a time of 26:24.9. 

The Jaguars will return to action on Friday, Oct. 18 when they participate in the Bradley 'Pink' Classic in Peoria, Ill.