PORTLAND, Ore. -- Five of the seven members of the Willmar Cross-Country Club team went down in a muddy pile-up on the opening curve of the Nike Team Nationals never to recover Saturday.
The Minnesota state champions, represtenting the Heartland Region, went on to finish a disappointing 16th in a field of 20 teams and 140 runners.
Kaafi Adeys, who was running near the front but on the outside, avoided the pile-up and finished 28th overall on the infield of Prairie Meadows horse track, soaked by large amounts of rain prior to the day of the race. "About 50 of the runners at the front went down," said Mark Miley, coach of the club team. "We had a great start but when you realized what had happened it was a sick feeling. Runners were coming up bloody and muddy."
Abdi Awale, Mohamed Bedel, Mahad Hassan, David Anderson and Mustafa Yusuf all crashed. Scott Boros also avoided the trouble.
"Mohamed had his head stepped on and most of our other guys got cut or bruised," said Miley. "By the time Abdi got going again he was dead last. But he picked off a lot of runners."
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Adeys finished the 5k circuit that includes hay bales the runners must jump over, in 17:18. James Murdock of the Clifton Park XC team won in 16:26. Bedel recovered to finish 69th (17:58) followed by Hassan 77th (18:06), Awale 84th (18:10), Yusuf 89th (18:13), Boros 131st (19:06) and Anderson (140th) 20:16.
Willmar was eyeing a top 10 finish after placing 14th in 2005.
"It was still a great experience," said Miley. "They really treat you well and the kids met a lot of famous distance runners."
Five of the seven runners are seniors at Willmar High School and two others underclassmen.
