The Aurora University Men's Cross Country team finished second out of three teams in their season opener at the Spartan Igniter hosted by the University of Dubuque. 

Dubuque won the meet with 19 points to Aurora's 43. UD's pack led from the start, and while the Spartans gave chase, their late charge wasn't enough to come away with a win. 

Leading the way for the Spartans was Jacob Bohnert who covered the hilly 5k course in a time of 16:38.7. Bohnert was in 10th place in the early stages of the race, but was able to work his way up to a fourth place finish. 

The next Aurora finisher was Cris Valencia in seventh place. Rounding out the scoring for the Spartans were Nick Valle in 9th, Miguel Gonzalez in 10th, and Steve Kalish in 13th. 

"I'm really proud of the way our men approached this competition today," said Aurora head coach Alex Lowe. "Obviously every time you step on the line the goal is to win, but we did a lot of things today that are going to prepare us for big victories later in the season. I was especially impressed with the races a few of our younger guys ran. Both Valencia and Kalish had huge summers of training and it definitely showed with how they placed today. This sets a great foundation for the things this group will do in the next few weeks." 

Next action for the Spartan men's cross-country team comes on Friday, September 10 when they host the Spartan Classic. Meet time is set for 5:45 p.m. at Northwestern Medicine XC Course in Batavia, Illinois.