Thomas D'Anieri - Men's Cross Country

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Senior Thomas D'Anieri had his second straight top-five finish, coming in fifth at The Master's Invitational, to help the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's cross country team to its second straight team championship on Saturday.

The Stags have far exceeded preseason expectations so far this fall, moving up from No. 19 in the preseason rankings into the top 10, reaching as high as No. 6 and currently holding the No. 7 spot. A big reason has been the return of D'Anieri, who was a top-100 runner at the NCAA Championships as a sophomore in 2017, but missed last season while studying abroad. 

This year, D'Anieri has quickly returned to his sophomore year form and been a model of consistency, finishing in the top 20 in all four races, including the top five in each of the last two. He has finished a close second on the team in each of the last three competitions, finishing one second behind Kyril Van Schendel on Sept. 21 at the Coyote Challenge as the two Stags finished first and second overall, and 3.5 seconds behind Stevie Steinberg this past weekend. Steinberg and D'Anieri finished The Master's Invitational in the No. 4 and No. 5 spots out of over 300 runners, trailing only the individual champion from Westmont and two runners from UCLA. 

CMS will be back in action on Oct. 12 when it travels to the Triton Invitational at UC San Diego.