COLFAX, Wis. – The No. 11-ranked St. Olaf College men's cross country team placed fifth in a field that included six nationally-ranked teams at the Blugold Invitational on Friday morning at Whitetail Golf Course.

Running at the site of this year's NCAA Division III North Region Championships, St. Olaf finished fifth with 143 points in a field where fewer than 100 points separated the top eight teams and fewer than 40 separated the top five. Running without one of their top runners due to injury, the Oles trailed No. 24 UW-Platteville (104), No. 17 UW-Stevens Point (111), No. 12 Hope College (119), and No. 1 UW-La Crosse (137).

The race was moved up from an evening start time to a rare morning start due to the forecast for temperatures in the mid-80s at the original starting time.

For the third consecutive race to start the season, senior Kevin Turlington was the runner-up among NCAA Division III competitors with a time of 24:50.9, which put him fourth overall in the field behind Mohammed Bati of Augsburg University and two unattached runners from the University of Minnesota. Turlington was just over 11 seconds off the pace of Bati's winning time of 24:39.6.

Senior Jack Deaver was the second Ole to cross the finish line, doing so in 25:44.4 to place 22nd. Senior Gael Manzur Strandlund was about 10 seconds behind Deaver in 38th (25:54.9), followed by junior Alex Bjork in 44th (26:00.8) and senior Eli Doran in 48th (26:05.1). Bjork's time was the fastest 8K performance of his collegiate career.

St. Olaf will be off for two weeks before splitting its team for races on Saturday, Oct. 18. The Oles' top group will head to Waterford, Conn. for the Connecticut College Invitational, while the rest of the team will run at home at the Haunted Hustle on the Hill.