TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - IU Indianapolis men's cross country graduate transfer Izaiah Steury put up a monster showing to lead the way for the Jaguars on Friday (Oct. 16) at the Under Armour Pre-National Invitational in Terre Haute, placing 30th of 342 runners in a nationally elite field. Steury recorded the third-best 8K time in program history at 23:47.2 on a windy, crisp day at the host site of this year's NCAA National Championships. 

Steury was fighting traffic for much of the race after a conservative start. 

"Today was a little rough," Steury said. "We didn't get out very well, including myself. I wasn't too happy with my performance, but it indicated that I'm getting super fit. I was able to pass more than 70 runners throughout the race."

Steury was outside of the top 100 at the initial 3K split, but moved up to the top 60 by the 5K. A late charge put him 30th overall in a tightly bunched pack. 

Freshman Aidan Connors was next in line for the Jaguars at 24:54.2, placing 229th overall, and Nick Cook crossed at 25:07.9. Junior Riley Nixon finished at 25:21.0 and Joey LaPatra rounded out the scoring five at 25:40.8. Sophomore Eli Oetken (25:45.6) and junior Sam Grimes (26:25.5) were the team's other two entries in the Blue Race as Luke Shappell missed due to injury. 

In the White Race, TJ Gorman led the way by placing 81st of 200 runners in a time of 25:42.4 and Nathan Gehrmann was just behind him at 25:43.8. Sophomore Michael Zegarski clocked a time of 25:50.3 and classmate Caleb Webb popped a big personal best by finishing at 25:56.2. Freshman Luca Bryja finished at 26:05.5, followed by Ben Gasiorski (25:40.1) and Ben Perschon (26:16.1). 

The Jaguars finished 40th of 44 teams in the Blue Race with 1,052 points. No. 8 Syracuse took top billing with 115 points while No. 14 Villanova was second with 127 points. No. 15 Notre Dame was third with 148 points and Wichita State placed fourth with 212 points. Individually, Tulane's Silas Kiptanui won the race in a time of 23:17.4, edging Wichita State's Elkana Kipruto for the victory. 

IU Indy will now turn sights to the 2026 Horizon League Championships, to be held in Clinton, Pa., on Saturday, Oct. 31 at noon.