The Iowa men’s cross-country team finished sixth at the Big Ten championship over the weekend in State College, Pa.

Wisconsin, last year’s conference champion, won the meet with 26 points. Minnesota’s Hassan Mead took the individual crown with a time of 25:00.

Competing in 10-team conference field (Northwestern does not have a men’s cross-country program), Iowa finished the meet with 149 team points, 32 points behind fifth-place Michigan.

After the return of injured top-five finishers Nick Holmes and co-captain Brendan Camplin, the Hawkeyes were hoping to end in the top four.

Jesse Luciano was Iowa’s top finisher with a time of 25:42, good enough for 13th place. By finishing in the top 14, Luciano earned a spot on the second team All-Big Ten lineup for the second-consecutive year.

Freshman Jeffrey Thode, who has been Iowa’s best runner all season, missed the All-Big Ten squad by eight seconds, coming in 17th place with a time of 25:52.

Luciano and Thode were in the top five for the majority of the race but struggled in the final stretch.

“We have yet to convince anyone we are a national-championship-meet-caliber team,” Wieczorek said. “We have two weeks to prepare now, to try to knock off a few teams who are ahead of us.”

Iowa will compete in the NCAA regional on Nov. 14.

— by Sean Morgan