Valparaiso's men's cross country team turned in a ninth place performance on Friday afternoon in the Gold Race of the Notre Dame Invitational.

The Crusaders tallied 278 points in the meet while Wisconsin-Stevens Point won the event with 52 points.

As he's done in the first two races of the season, freshman Christopher Orosz (Holland, Ohio/St. John's Jesuit H.S.) led the Valpo attack with a 35th place finish in a time of 26:04 over the eight-kilometer course. Orosz's time is his career best at this point in the season.

Nate Nunnelly (Valparaiso, Ind./Valparaiso H.S.) also turned in his best performance of the year with his time of 26:31, placing 51st overall. Fellow senior Matt Blume (Logansport, Ind./Pioneer H.S.) was third for Valpo with a time of 26:42, seven places behind Nunnelly.

Rick Wenger (Belvidere, Ill./Belvidere H.S.) crossed the finish line fourth for the Brown and Gold, 60th overall with a time of 26:44. Adam Piaskowy (Crete, Ill./Crete-Monee H.S.) was Valpo's final scorer on the day, finishing 99th overall with a time of 27:46.

Valparaiso will return to the course tomorrow afternoon as those runners that did not compete today will run at the Loyola Lakefront Invitational in Chicago, Ill. The gun for the men's race will fire at noon.