Monmouth College

Multiple Scots Set PRs at Heartland Invitational

by Nathan Baliva

MONMOUTH, Ill. (09/26/2026) — The Monmouth College Cross Country teams ran at the Heartland Invitational in Normal, Illinois on Friday night. The men finished in fifth place while the women did not get a team score.

The men ran the traditional 8K distance and saw multiple runners with collegiate personal bests. Andrew Peterson (Galesburg, Illinois) finished in 23rd place with a PR of 26:53.4. Fernando Avila Rubio (Alpha, Illinois) finished in 25th place with a season-best time of 26:56.0. Xander Stoub (Palos Heights, Illinois) also ran a season-best as he finished 27th in 27:03.5.

Dawid Opiola (Arlington Heights, Illinois) finished in 32nd place with a PR of 27:17.5 and Jack Wayne (Yorkville, Illinois) also set a PR in 60th place in 28:25.9. Riley Morgan (Jewett, Illinois) ran a season-best 29:03.3 to finish 68th and Braden Rees (Galesburg, Illinois) finished 82nd with a season-best time of 30:12.4.

The women's race was first on Friday and covered 5K. Freshman Morgan Sheley (Lincoln, Illinois) finished in 20th place with a collegiate PR of 20:02.1.

MONMOUTH MOMENTS: Every runner on the day posted a season-best for their distance ... The Scots were originally scheduled to run at the Central Dutch Open in Iowa on Friday but course conditions forced Central to cancel that meet earlier this week ... Monmouth finished second in the men's race among Division III teams ... Both teams will compete next Saturday in the Brissman-Lundeen Invite hosted by Augustana.

Xander

Stoub