Saint Louis University’s men’s cross country team has found podium success for the fall 2025 regular season. So far, they have competed in the University of Missouri’s (Mizzou) season opener, the Bradley Intercollegiate Championship and the Gans Creek Classic.
The Billikens opened their season at the Mizzou Opener in Columbia, Missouri, where they placed second, behind host Mizzou, but beat teams from larger schools, like Oregon and Wisconsin. Unlike the other races they compete in, the course was 5 kilometers as opposed to 8 kilometers.
SLU’s top five runners all finished among the top 20. Sophomore Manny Vela led the way with a time of 15:06.4, which earned him ninth place, followed by freshman Aleksandr Acuna, freshman Ronnie Brown, junior Brady Huggins and senior Lukasz Iwanowski. SLU’s top five runners finished in less than 16 seconds of one another, helping the team secure five spots in the top 20.
“Our one to five spread was only 16 seconds, which might be the best we’ve ever had,” Coach Jon Bell said.
On Sept. 19, at the Bradley Intercollegiate Championships in Peoria, Illinois, the Billikens again placed second overall in the men’s 8K race. Vela was the first SLU runner to finish, running a time of 24:43.80 for fifth place. Complementing him were Lukasz Iwanowski (10th, 25:09.40), Ronnie Brown (12th, 25:13.10), Bora Celiknal (13th, 25:18.20) and Brady Huggins (20th, 25:52.20).
The third race was the Gans Creek Classic, hosted again by Mizzou. The meet, held on the site of what will be used as this year’s NCAA Championships course, drew many high-performing teams.
The SLU men did not perform as well in this race, finishing 21st in the 8K Black division. However, many individuals still ran well. Vela posted the best finish among SLU’s men in 50th place with a time of 24:24.0. Ronnie Brown (113th, 24:54.3), Lukasz Iwanowski (158th, 25:13.8), Brady Huggins (188th, 25:33.7) and Tyler Schweizer (194th, 25:38.5) rounded out the scoring five.
“These were not the results we wanted. I’m definitely not ready to hit the panic button, but we as a team need to take a close look at this weekend and learn from it,” Bell said.
Despite the somewhat disappointing overall performance, he also noted that several athletes ran season or personal bests in the 8K.
Next, the Billikens will compete in the Pre‑National Invitational in Columbia, Missouri, on Oct 18. Following that, SLU will compete in the Atlantic 10 Championships on Nov. 1. Based on performance there, the team hopes to run in the NCAA Midwest Regional on Nov. 14, and then the NCAA Championships on Nov. 22.