Mark Abrams and Zach Ward are among the GPAC best of the week award winners.

Mark Abrams has been named the Hauff Mid-America Sports/Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) Men’s Cross Country Runner of the Week and the Mustangs’ Zach Ward has been named the Hauff Mid-America Sports/GPAC Men’s Golfer of the Week for Sept. 21-27.

Abrams, a senior from Glenwood, Iowa, was the individual champion at last Saturday’s Doane College Dean White Invitational when he ran the 8k course in a time of 26:12.13 for a 10-second winning margin over runner-up Eric Weers of Doane.

Abrams’ performance helped lead the eighth-ranked Mustangs to the team championship in runaway fashion. Morningside had five of the top seven individual finishers and won the team title by a 49-point margin over runner-up Doane.

Ward, a sophomore from Waterloo, Iowa, fired a two-under par 70 to take individual medalist honors and help lead the Mustangs to the team championship at the Morningside Invitational held Sept. 21 at Whispering Creek Golf Club. Kraft edged Northwestern College’s Justin Kraft by one stroke for top individual honors.

Ward, who joined the Mustangs this year as a transfer from AIB College of Business, has a 75.1-stroke scoring average for the Mustangs so far this season.