But Davis, who broke his own record set last week, was more excited about the meet’s implications for this season.

“I was ecstatic to hit [the automatic qualifying mark]…I think the whole team, as well as myself, is moving into great position for conference,” Davis said. “All of our indoor training up until this point is directed toward everyone hitting their best marks at conference, and I think that’s what’s going to happen.”

Graduate student Pierre Hoppenot, who has four victories in four appearances this season in the 200-meter dash, also set a new school mark, passing Antone Meaux’s 15-year-old record of 22.54 seconds. He regarded the accomplishment in a forward-thinking manner.

“Breaking the record is obviously a nice reminder that training hard pays off,” Hoppenot said. While Hoppenot acknowledged there isn’t a 200-meter dash event at nationals, he’s excited about the promising prospects of the 4×400 team that he is a part of.

“We have a good team…I am just trying to get faster and help my teammates get faster,” Hoppenot said.

The men’s team also had a strong showing in the 3,000-meter run, where junior Dave Spandorfer (8:32.80), sophomore Michael Burnstein (8:38:40), sophomore Tucker Hartley (8:45.07) and senior Matt Kruger (8:59.38) teamed up to sweep first place through fourth place. While Wash. U. fielded many strong performances, scores were not kept comparing the various competing schools.

The big event on the women’s side was the mile run, in which sophomore Liz Phillips fell 1.40 seconds short of making the provisional qualifying mark for the NCAA national championships in March. Her impressive 5:06.40 was also just 1.48 seconds short of a victory that went to Simpson College’s Catie Ellingson. Fellow sophomore Erica Jackey joined Phillips in the top three with a time of 5:08.05.

Other medalists for the women were graduate student co-captain Caitlin Hartsell, who grabbed third place in the 200-meter dash at 27.66 seconds, and sophomore Katie Hered, whose 3.05-meter pole vault was good for third place. Hartsell’s time was her season best, and Hered’s placed for the fourth time in the 2010 campaign.

For the men, senior Zach Griffen nabbed second in the 5,000-meter run (16:07.04), sophomore Tyler Jackson rounded out the top three in the 55-meter hurdles (7.90), and junior Scott Pettit pole vaulted 4.35 meters for a third-place finish. Davis also had a third-place finish in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.75 seconds.

The Bears will wrap up the regular season next weekend at the North Central College Meet in Naperville, Ill., before heading to Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., for the UAA indoor championship. “Everybody’s a little more focused now and pretty excited for the UAAs,” Hered said. “Individually, we have a lot of strong athletes. Hopefully, we can tie it all together.”

With additional reporting by Johann Qua Hiansen

The women’s team combined for 48 points, falling 14 points behind the first-place team, Southern Illinois University, and beating the third-place team, Murray State, by 16 points. The men’s team defeated the third-place team, University of Evansville, by 22 points. Despite their strong performance, the men were unable to overcome Southern Illinois University’s perfect score of 15 points.

The teams were challenged by the elements and were unable to meet some of their personal best times. The field was muddy and unforgiving to the runners.

“Because of the muddy conditions the meet was more about competing than time, and we did a great job of that,” senior Molly Schlamb said. The women had nine runners in the top 25, while the men had seven in the top 25 finishers. Leading the way for the women was sophomore Liz Phillips in sixth place, Schlamb at seventh and junior Jess Londeree in 11th.

“Everything we do is geared towards qualifying for the NCAA’s regional meet in November,” senior men’s co-captain Zach Griffen said.

Although many of the runners are out due to injury, some new runners, such as freshman David Hamm and sophomore Malik Nabulsi, have been huge additions to the team, Griffen said.

Hamm paced the Bears, finishing sixth overall with a time of 26 minutes and 33 seconds, while Nabulsi came in seventh. The men’s race was very competitive, with eventual winner SIU’s Jason Ordwar finishing just eight seconds ahead of Hamm. Junior Erik Hinrichsen came in 13th overall, rounding out the Wash. U. top three. The men are determined to make a name for themselves and perform as best as they can every time, members of the cross country team said.

The team travels to Louisville, Ky., next week to represent the Red and Green against some Division I teams in one of the biggest invitational meets of the season. The meet is incredibly important for qualifying for the NCAA regionals in November.

“Last week was some great practice for bigger meets such as next week’s,” Griffen said. “Hopefully, it won’t be covered in mud again.”

The entire team hopes to qualify together for regionals in November and really put Wash. U. on the map for cross country.

“This year’s team is really special, and I believe when November comes, we will be ready to achieve some really great things,” Schlamb said.