Dan Chenoweth has traded training on the prairies of Illinois for the hills of New England, but the results have remained the same.

The Harvard junior who starred at Geneseo won the individual championship at the Ivy League Cross Country Championships on Saturday, topping the field by 10.5 seconds to become the first Crimson runner to win the league title in 14 years.

"Tactically, everything went pretty close to what I anticipated," Chenoweth said. "I was with the lead pack early in the race and stayed with the group through a long section of hills before I made my move. I didn't want to do anything too crazy until then."

The win continued a solid start to the season for the Ivy League's top-returning finisher from the 2008 NCAA Championships, where he finished 42nd - two spots away from all-American honors.

Chenoweth finished first in the 97th annual dual between Harvard and Yale and took eighth place at the Pre-Nationals Invitational on Oct. 17 at Terre Haute, Ind. Running a personal-best 24 minutes, 1.8 seconds in the 8,000-meter race on the NCAA championship course, Chenoweth finished 21 seconds behind winner Luke Paskedra of Oregon.

"I don't have much to complain about with the way things have gone in my first three races," Chenoweth said. "The dual with Yale is important to us, and to do better than I did last year at Pre-Nationals is encouraging."

The start has prepared Chenoweth for the only two meets remaining on the Harvard schedule: the NCAA Northeast Regional, which will be contested on Harvard's home course on Nov. 14, and the NCAA Championships later in the month in Indiana.

"This time of year is why I do the sport," he said. "I know the races will be competitive and the competition will be strong. My objective is to do better than I did the year before and not get ahead of myself. My focus right now is on the regional and advancing."

Toward that objective, Chenoweth has reduced the mileage in his training, but continues to keep the intensity of his workouts at a high level to prepare him for NCAA competition.

That focus has allowed Chenoweth, majoring in sociology, to excel as he has moved beyond training on dusty country roads around Geneseo to a more urban environment.

"It's been a change. After years of running along the cornfields, I find myself training in the hills in the parks and preserves here," Chenoweth said. "But at the end of the day, running is running, and it is all about preparing and persevering. That never changes."

Men's cross country

Arkansas' Dorian Ulrey, a Riverdale graduate, took second place Saturday at the Southeastern Conference Championships. Ulrey ran the 8,000-meter course in 24 minutes, 33.3 seconds to earn all-conference honors as part of a runner-up finish by the Razorbacks.

Iowa Central's Josh Fick, a former Muscatine prep, took 19th place at the NJCAA Region XI Championships last weekend in Peoria, Ill.

Luke Miller, a Clinton grad in his senior season at Western Illinois, finished 49th overall and was the Leathernecks' fourth finisher at the Summit League Championships.

Women's cross country

Former Davenport West standout Alycia Thurston, a sophomore at Western Illinois, was the Leathernecks' third finisher and a 52nd-place finisher overall at the Summit League finals.

Shelbie Pettie, an Iowa Central freshman who competed at Sherrard, took eighth place in the NJCAA Region XI Championships on Saturday at Peoria, Ill.

Football

Northwest Missouri State sophomore Jake Soy established a Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Conference record when he raised his total number of touchdown catches for the season to 19 with four touchdown catches last weekend. The former Durant star had eight catches for a career-high 156 yards as the Bearcats secured an outright conference title with a 66-40 win over Fort Hayes State.

Central College junior Kurtis Brondyke, a Clinton graduate, averaged 49.4 yards on five punts - including a career-best punt of 78 yards - as the Dutch clinched at least a share of the Iowa Conference title with a 17-0 win over Buena Vista.

Men's soccer

Scott Willits, a Wartburg midfielder from Bettendorf, made his first two goals of the season count. The junior scored game-winners for the Knights in Iowa Conference wins over Coe and Luther, goals that came on his only shots on goal during the two games.

Wisconsin-Platteville co-captain Tyler Holle of Bettendorf has been named as an ESPN The Magazine second-team academic all-district selection.

Women's soccer

Camille Repass, a freshman defender at Parkland College, was awarded honorable mention NJCAA all-Region 24.

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The Alumni Report highlights what former Quad-City area high school athletes are up to at the college level. To submit information, Steve Batterson can be contacted at (563) 383-2290 or sbatterson@qctimes.com.