(September 26, 2008 - Lansing, Mich.) -- Eight Cardinal runners to the course on Friday afternoon at the Lansing Community College Invitational. It was the most wearing the Concordia uniform since the program was re-instated as a varsity sport four years ago. As has been the case all year, Jim Abrams (Fr. - Monroe, Mich.) lead the pack as he finished with a time of 27:52, his second best time of the season and a 31st place finish Friday.

Addisalem Habtewold of the host LCC squad won the race with a time of 26:06 while Indiana Tech's John Wainwright was 10 seconds behind at 26:16 to be the first NAIA runner to finish and second overall.

For many of the runners, Friday was one of their best finishes, save for the Sept. 6 race at the UD Titan Invitational, where the course was extremely fast and made for remarkable finishing times. Friday was more similar to the courses at Hope and Bowling Green, and allows the opportunity to show improvements over the year for most of the squad, including Abrams who broke 28 minutes for the first time outside of the UD Invite.

Philip Brown (Fr. - St. Joseph, Mich.) finished with only his second time under 30 minutes of the season and did so at 29:32 which earned him a 78th place finish. It was the second straight race for Brown as the second Cardinal finisher. In the first race of the season, Brown finished 3:27 behind Abrams; cut that to 2:16 in race number two and 1:10 at Bowling Green. Brown was 1:40 behind Abrams on Friday, showing vast improvement and creating some competition at the top of the pile.

Tyler Case (So. - Cedar Springs, Mich.) also broke 30 minutes for the second time this season as he was 10 spots and 25 seconds behind Brown. Case's time of 29:57 earned him an 88th place finish overall and was 1:46 better than any other finish save for the UD Invite.

The third Cardinal runner to break 30 minutes for the second time this season was Ryan Burmeister (Fr. - Muskegon, Mich.) who did so by the narrowest of margins: one second. Nonetheless, outside of his 23:34 finish at the Sept. 6 race, Burmeister shaved 57 seconds off his next best time.

Michael Haiderer (Sr. - Saginaw, Mich.) ran in his third race of the season finishing with a time of 31:05 for 105th overall.  Steven Lestock (So. - Cumberland, Ohio) crossed at the 31:52 mark (112th overall). Lestock didn't run at the UD Invitational, so Friday's time was his best of the season narrowly edging his time at Bowling Green, when he finished at 31:57.

Martell Buchanan (Fr. - Detroit, Mich.) made his collegiate debut Friday and finished with a respectable time of 32:04, which earned him the 113th spot overall.

Sam Bruer also had an improved time in comparison to similar courses as he finished with at 32:40 for a 119th place finish in a crowd of 145 runners.

The Cardinal runners will head to the Wisconsin Lutheran Warrior Classic on Oct. 4 in the second-to-last race before the WHAC Championship on November 8.