Stags Finish 16th at NCAA's

The men's cross country team exceeded all pre-race expectations with a 16th-place finish at the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships on Saturday. The team, tied for 28th in the national rankings prior to the meet, scored 462 points and beat 11 teams ranked in the top 25 including the other two teams from the West Region (Willamette [27th] and Occidental [30th]). This was the sixth team appearance at the national meet for the Stags and they have finished in the top 17 every time. The national field included 28 teams and 56 individuals for a total of 280 runners. Times were over 30 seconds per mile slower than expected due to extremely muddy conditions.

Dan Hayman (SR, Marysville, WA) led the Stags as he has done for every race of his collegiate career. This was his fourth appearance at the nationals and he had his best career finish, 38th, with a time of 27:49. Mike Van Antwerp (SO, Reno, NV) had his best race of the season while finishing 59th. Chris Gurney (SO, Ventura) was 134th, James Moore (SR, Mercer Island, WA) 184th, Brad Johnson (JR, Berkeley) 191st, Adam Coleman (JR, Clayton) 223rd and Ethan Meyers (FR, Pacific Palisades) 265th. CMS had all five scorers among the top 16 West Region runners, including three in the top 10, after having only two top 20 finishers at the West Regional the previous weekend. All seven runners ran better in relation to the West Region than they did at the regional.