WICHITA, Kan. – The Washburn men's cross country team opened its 2025 season with a strong group performance at the JK Gold Classic on Saturday morning, placing six runners inside the top 30 of the collegiate men's race while finishing in second place out of 14 overall.

Leading the way for the Ichabods was Tommy Roehl, who crossed the line in 19:18.75 to place 15th overall in the highly competitive field. He was followed closely by Ludovico Vaccari in 17th at 19:28.32 and Adrian Lehman, who grabbed 22nd with a time of 19:35.85.

Rounding out Washburn's top five were Lukas Mehl in 23rd (19:38.79) and Aidan Junior in 27th (19:46.25). Freshman Trent Zimbelman also made a solid collegiate debut, finishing 43rd in 20:14.67.

The Ichabods added depth throughout the lineup with Taylor Karcz (46th, 20:16.15), Kyle Wagoner (51st, 20:29.85), Devin Trent (59th, 20:37.22), and Connor Burkdoll (64th, 20:40.15) all finishing in the top half of the 156-runner field.

As a team, the Ichabods had 89 team points finishing behind Wichita State who won the event with 20 points. Fort Hays State was third with 93 points and Butler County was fourth with 102.
Washburn returns to action on Sept. 20 at the Missouri Southern Stampede in Joplin, Mo.