GRINNELL, Iowa - Webster University's Cameron Sakuma (O'Fallon, Mo./Fort Zumwalt West) continued his impressive freshman cross country campaign here Saturday as he ran an 8,000-meter time of 28:14.6 to place 28th overall out of 175 runners at the Les Duke Invitational hosted by Grinnell College and held at the Grinnell Golf Course. 

At Saturday's second cross country meet of the 2019 season, Webster placed eighth overall out of 16 teams as the Gorloks scored a total of 251 points to finish 27 points in front of ninth place Southwestern Community College (278 points) and 12 points behind seventh place Graceland University (239 points). 

Central College won the event as they put six runners in the Top 10 en route to scoring 26 points to earn first place honors. Truman State was second with 47 points, while Grinnell placed third overall with 116 points. 

The Gorloks were one of three schools from the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference that ran at Grinnell's meet as along with Webster, Principia tied for 11th with 332 points and Iowa Wesleyan was 16th with 384 points. 

With his 28th place finish, Sakuma has now been the Gorloks top finisher in their first two events this season as he placed seventh overall at the season opening WIU Early Bird Invitational on Aug. 30. 

In addition to Sakuma, sophomore Javier Cervantes (Garden City, Kan./Garden City) placed 39th overall with an 8K time of 28:53.1, while freshman Kaelin Triggs (St. Louis, Mo./Mehlville) recorded a 64th place finish with a personal best 8K time of 29:59.7. 

Sophomore Eli Guzman (Parkville, Mo./Park Hill South) was the fourth highest finisher for the Gorloks he ran an 8K time of 31:06.4 to finish 93rd overall and the fifth finisher was senior Abram Donovan (St. Paul, Minn./Highland Park) was 103rd overall with an 8K time of 31:33.9

The final two scoring runners for the Gorloks were freshman Gabriel Ayers (Bonne Terre, Mo./Saint Paul Lutheran) and senior Paul Mueller (Red Bud, Ill./Red Bud) as they placed 104th and 145th overall respectively. Ayers, who was running in his first collegiate meet, ran the 8K course in a time of 31:35.5 and Mueller ran the 8K course in a time of 34:38.4.