• Sophomore Eli Page leads DMACC with a third-place finish
• Freshman Christian Choate takes fourth place
• Sophomores Elijah Blix and Zack Stoermer are sixth and seventh respectively

The DMACC men's cross country team opened the 2025 season with a second-place finish in the Trent Smith Invitational September 13 at Mason City.

Wartburg College (WC) took the team championship with 27 points, one point better than DMACC. North Iowa Area Community College (NIACC) was a distant third with 92 points and Faith Baptist Bible College (FBBC) finished fourth with 103 points.

Sophomore Eli Page of Vinton led the Bears with a third place finish, touring the 8K course in 26 minutes, 39 seconds. Freshman Christian Choate of Martensdale finished fourth in 26:48 and sophomores Elijah Blix of Vinton and Zach Stoermer of Des Moines and freshman Sam Mora of Grimes gave DMACC five finishers in the top 10 by placing sixth, seventh and ninth respectively. Blix posted a time of 27:02, Stoermer crossed the finish line in 27:04 and Mora's time was 27:21.

Other DMACC results saw freshman Dylan Jones of Milford finish in 19^th place, freshman Parker Gooding of Marshalltown was 21^st, freshman Redge Potts of Lytton finished in 26^th place, freshman Joseph Lawry of Waukee was 27^th and freshman Owen Ament of Colfax finished in 34^th place.

Jones turned in a time of 28:21, Gooding crossed the finish line in 28:32, Potts finished in 28:58, Lawry in 29:24 and Ament in 32:00.

WC's Ben Neville won the race with a time of 26:21 and teammate A.J. Schermerhorn was second in 26:35.

DMACC head coach Michael Melchert likes the potential his team has for the fall season. Page was one of the Bears' top runners last season and had a good track & field season last spring, including qualifying for the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) championships last spring.

"Getting Page back is good and we have a very good freshman class," Melchert said, adding that the 2025 roster includes just four sophomores. Page, Blix, Stoermer are joined on the roster by Hunter Landphair of Adel.

Melchert said he Page, Blix and Stoermer will make up three of the top five runners on the team with any number of freshmen having the potential to join them.

"We are pretty balanced," Melchert said. "I think we can win the regional meet and make the podium at the national championships."

The DMACC men's cross country team will run in the Dutch Open Sept. 26 at Pella.