Simon Bairu Finishes 1st at Roy Griak improves 24 seconds for  the course !

Senior Simon Bairu finished first out of 225 runners with a time of 23:43. Last year at the Griak, Bairu came in second with his 24:07 finish. Simon has improved by 24 seconds.

Wisconsin men's cross country team scored 151 points to finish second of 27 teams in the 20th annual Roy Griak Invitational Saturday in Minneapolis, Minn.

After redshirting last season, freshmen Stuart Eagon, Bryan Culver and senior Anthony Ford competed in their first official race as Badgers. Eagon claimed a fifth place finish overall with a time of 24:15. Ford, who transferred from Montana two years ago, finished eighth overall with his 24:27 time. Culver crossed the finish line last of the six Badger runners, 151st overall, and posted a time of 26:31.

Also competing for the Badgers were juniors Codie See and Teddy O'Reilly. See finished fourth of the Badgers, 58th overall, with a time of 25:23 while O'Reilly clocked a time of 25:40 to finish fifth for the Badgers and 85th overall.

Place   Name                School           Time    Pts.
1       Simon Bairu         Wisconsin        23:34    1
2       Benson Chesang      Kansas           24:05    2
3       Josh Rohatinsky     Brigham Young    24:06    3
4       Seth Pilkington     Weber State      24:07    4
5       Stuart Eagon        Wisconsin        24:15    5
6       Austin Ramos        UCLA             24:21    6

After winning such a victory today with the help of  Simon, the badgers left Minnesota in a bus to Wisconsin  and got home safe but tired. Simon is happy of the result at this Roy Griak invitational today, the 24th of September 2004.

EAAA congratulates Simon Bairu for his first place win and his 24 seconds improvement for the course !

Yohannes Debesai,

President, EAAA