Athenas 10th, Stags 15th at NCAA Cross Country Championships

Both cross country teams well exceeded their pre-meet rankings at the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships on Saturday.  The women, ranked 18th, finished tenth with 293 points and the men, ranked 19th, finished 15th with 427.  CMS was the top finishing team in the West Region in both races.  32 teams and 280 runners competed in each race.

The Stags moved up as a team throughout the race.  Intermediate teams scores were taken at the 3.1 and 6 kilometer marks of the 8K race.  CMS was 25th (580 points) at the first split and 20th (501) at the second before moving up to tie for 15th (427) at the finish.  CMS won the tiebreaker over Wabash College 3-2.  Only one other team moved up more than two places over the final two kilometers and no team moved up more than CMS.  Zorg Loustalet led the team as he has all season.  He finished 27th overall with a time of 24:33 to earn All-American honors for the second straight season.  Loustalet is the first CMS male to earn multiple All-American awards.  Jack Wilson finished 81st with a personal best of 25:11.  Alex Lombardo was 117th in 25:26, Hunter Olsen finished 153rd with a personal best of 25:37, Sam Pitcavage was 194th (25:52), Garrett Ryan 199th (25:56) and Alex Mauro 242nd (26:19).  The five scorers had team point totals of 20, 61, 86, 112 and 148.  The men's finish was their fourth in the top 16 since the national field expanded to 32 teams in 2006.

The Athenas started the race strongly and stayed there throughout.  CMS was 11th at the 3.1 kilometer split with 341 points and dropped 48 points and one position over the remainder of the race.  Sara Mostatabi was in the lead pack early in the race and finished with her best ever national finish (61st - 22:55) in her fourth appearance in the championship race.  Caroline Willian finished right behind Mostatabi in 62nd with a time of 22:55.  Carmen Mejia was 79th (23:06), Bryn McKillop 89th, (23:15), Taia Wu 103rd (23:15), Jen Lehr 105th (23:16) and Kaitlyn Spees 172nd (23:43).  Only 20.9 seconds separated the Athenas' first and fifth runners which was easily the lowest spread of any team in the race.  The team's depth was impressive as illustrated by having the ninth best fourth runner, sixth best fifth runner, fourth best sixth runner and third best seventh runner in the field.  The five scorers had team points totals of 44, 45, 58, 68 and 78.  The women's finish was their seventh top ten finish in their history and their third in the past four years.