For the first time in school history, Webster University won a meet, doing so at the Principia (IL) Invitational. The Gorloks took home the team championship in a field of four teams.
 
Webster's cross country program started in 1985, went on hiatus in the early '90s before being reinstated in 2008. The highest finish by last year's squad was fifth place at its conference championships.
 
For the fifth time in as many races, the Gorloks' No. 1 runner was Jason Hickson (SR, Hillsboro, MO / Hillsboro HS). He finished third among 42 runners with a time of 26 minutes and 41 seconds for the 8,000-meter course, the same distance for upcoming championship meets.
 
Hickson improved his season won-loss record to 563-35, good for a .941 win percentage. He is on pace to break his previous best season win percentage of .702, set last year. The senior entered this season with a .641 career win mark.
 
Hickson is also on pace to become the second Gorlok ever to finish a season with a win percentage of .800 or better. The school record is .924 (844-69) by Ethan Jeffries in 2013.
 
For the first time this season, Evan Stovall (FR, Ballwin, MO / Parkway South) was the team's second-fastest runner, finishing sixth overall with a time of 28:01. He was team's No. 4 finisher in his season debut at Hanover (IN) Sept. 6.
 
Charles Whitehead (JR, Carthage, MO / Carthage) set a season-best time by running a 28:07, good for eighth place. He was five seconds shy of his career best time for this distance. A second behind Whitehead was Chaise Blakley (FR, Geneseo, IL / Geneseo) at 28:08, good for ninth place.
 
That gave Webster four runners in the top 10, allowing it to edge out second-place and host Principia, which only had three top-10 finishers, in the team scoring. Webster had 11 runners finish ahead of the No. 4 runner for Principia, which is the defending conference champion.
 
Capturing 12th, 13th and 14th place were Colton Ingram (FR, Licking, MO / Licking), with a season-best time of 28:34; Greg Fletcher (SR, St. Charles, MO / Francis Howell), 28:39; and Riley Flynn (FR, O'Fallon, MO / Ft. Zumwalt North), 28:45.
 
Webster's No. 5 runner has averaged 29:22 this season, 28:30 in the last two meets. By comparison, the Gorloks' fifth runner ran a 29:52 at the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships last year. The spread in times today between Webster's No. 1 and 5 runners was one minute and 53 seconds, compared to the 4:34 recorded at last year's conference meet.
 
Brandon Brown (FR, Hazelwood, MO / Hazelwood West), was 16th with a season-best time of 29:05. Newcomer David Lambus (JR, St. Louis, MO / University City) made his Webster debut, placing 17th at 29:12.
 
Also finishing in the top 20 were Chris Erxleben (FR, Sullivan, MO / Sullivan) and Robert Koegel (FR, Silverthorne, CO / Summit) in 19th and 20th place, respectively.
 
Of note among other Webster entrants, Nathaniel Harrison (FR, O'Fallon, MO / Ft. Zumwalt West) ran his fastest meet of the season, 31:17.
 
The Gorloks will rest from competition leading up to the SLIAC meet Nov. 1. Last year, Webster finished fifth in the conference with a six-person roster that had three upperclassmen and two freshmen. This year's 15-person roster has four upperclassmen and 11 freshmen.