On to Nationals! Men's Cross Country Ties for First at West Regionals

WALLA WALLA, Wash. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's cross country team bounced back from a third-place showing at the SCIAC Championships two weeks ago to tie for first with Pomona-Pitzer on Saturday at the NCAA West Regionals, 

CMS and Pomona-Pitzer both finished with 54 points and will take the two automatic bids from regionals on to the NCAA Championships next weekend in Wisconsin. 

Freshman Miles Christensen had a big day for the Stags, finishing in third place overall with a time of 25:04.1, including second among team-scoring runners (Benjamin White of Whittier finished second, but was competing as an individual).  He was joined in the top 10 by sophomore Stevie Steinberg, who crossed the line in 25:20.0 to come in ninth place. 

Freshman Kyril Van Schendel had a 12th place finish for the Stags in 25:23.9, while freshman Alexander Hirsch (pictured) made it three rookies in the top four for CMS with a 15th place finish in 25:26.5. Senior Ben Iten gave the Stags the tie for first by coming in 25th with a 25:46.0, finishing a tenth of a second ahead of Owen Woo of Pomona-Pitzer to enable CMS to finish with 54 points. 

Thomas Fleming, another freshman in the CMS top seven, came in 32nd place with 25:58.1, while sophomore William Kimball rounded out the seven Stag competitors in 41st (out of 100 runners) with a 26:13.3. 

CMS will be heading to nationals for the 11th straight season, a streak that appeared to be in jeopardy after the Stags finished third at SCIACs, but they finished 22 points ahead of UC Santa Cruz in third place with 76 points to comfortably earn the automatic qualifier.