Luntsford, Avila Rubio Lead Scots Runners in Iowa

by Nathan Baliva

MONMOUTH, Ill. (10/04/2025) — The Monmouth College cross country teams ran in the Seminole Valley Stampede on Saturday. Hosted by Mount Mercy, the race was at Seminole Valley Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

The Monmouth women finished in 12th place with the men in 16th. The women ran the 6K distance for the first time this season while the men ran 8K for the second meet.

"The women were excited to finally be racing the full 6K distance," said head coach Cooper Pauley. "They got themselves into really strong positions early in the race and that resulted in successful and competitive finishes."

Sophomore Paige Luntsford (Cairo, Missouri) led the Scots with a 43rd place finish in a new PR of 24:08.3. She took more than three minutes off her top 6K time from last season. Junior Samantha Costello (Morris, Illinois) finished 78th in 25:36,40 and junior Melissa Bivolarov (Arlington Heights, Illinois) finished 91st in 26:07.1. Freshman Keira Taylor (Astoria, Illinois) was 129th in 27:36.2 with classmate Adyson Beebe (Clinton, Illinois) next in 27:46.7. Freshman Amelia Iwanski (Saint Charles, Illinois) finished in 138th place in 28:24.4

MEN

"The men put together another good day with everyone improving on times from the Bradley meet two weeks ago" said Pauley. "They are all pacing their races better as the season goes on and that is going to set us up well for the Midwest Conference championships."

Sophomore Fernando Avila Rubio (Alpha, Illinois) finished 97th in 27:19.1, 90 seconds better than his time from two weeks ago. Junior Xander Stoub (Palos Heights, Illinois) finished in 114th place with a time of 27:36.0, 13 seconds better than his season best. Freshman Riley Morgan (Jewett, Illinois) took 173rd in 29:24.90 and freshman Braden Rees (Galesburg, Illinois) ran 30:24.1 to finish 197th, Junior Larry Kamara (Alpha, Illinois) took 238th in 33:03.80

MONMOUTH MOMENTS: Taylor, Beebe and Iwanski had not run the 6K before at the collegiate level ... Stoub took 26 seconds off his PR from last year ... Kamara took two minutes off his time from Sept. 19 for a new PR while Rees was 17 seconds better than his previous best ... Saturday's race was on the same course that hosts the Midwest Conference Championships in November ... The Scots are off next weekend before running at the Augustana Interregional on Oct. 18.