This past weekend, the Bison Men’s Cross Country team took home their first win of the season at the Robert Morris Invitational. Closing the meet with 24 points, the Bison were number one of six teams, followed by Slippery Rock in second with 48 points. 

Bison Henry Didden ’26 led his team to victory by finishing with a 24:19.4, securing his first ever personal XC win. 

“I had an open mindset going into the race. I did not really know how it was going to play out, but I knew that I had to put myself in a position for success. My original plan was to stay in the front pack and see where we were with two miles to go. That seemed to work pretty well, my teammates and I ran well together in the front and finished strong,” Didden said. 

Didden was not the only Bison in the top five with Max Crockett ’26 joining him at fourth, running a 24:35.0. Breaking the top 10, Trent Dinant ’26 came in sixth, Peter Sorensen ’25 came in eighth and Mason Siebenhaar ’26 came in ninth, giving the Orange and Blue five out of the top 10 runners.

This aligned with what the team had been working on leading up to the race according to Didden: 

“[Coach Donner] wanted us to go out fast and have a pack of four or five guys in the front of the race to practice getting into a good position early in the race. He prepared us very well for this race. We went to the course the day before to run it once before our race and talked about our race strategy,” Didden said. “I feel like all of my hard work over the summer and all of the miles that I put in are paying off. I feel like the whole team feels like that coming away from this meet with a team win. We put in a lot of work together everyday, and I hope this boosts our confidence going into the rest of the season.”  

The Bison will run again on Sept. 30 for the Paul Short Run at Lehigh.