Stags 7th, Athenas 13th at NCAA D-III Championships; Loustalet and Blum All-Americans
WINNECONNE, Wisc. – The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's cross country team finished seventh and the women's team finished 13th at the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships on Saturday, Nov. 21. This was the Stags' best showing at nationals in program history, finishing well ahead of both their 10th place pre-meet ranking and their previous program-best 11th place finish which was set in 2012. Their team score of 290 points is the lowest point total by 139 points since the championship field expanded to 32 teams in 2006. The women, who were ranked 10th, did not quite manage to meet this ranking, finishing 13th with 419 points.
In addition to the strong team performances, seniors Zorg Loustalet (HMC) and Bridget Blum (CMC) who were the leaders for the Stags and for the Athenas, finished in the top-35, earning All-America accolades. Loustalet finished 29th out of 275 runners, earning All-America honors for the third-consecutive year. He is the only repeat All-American in Stag history. After a two-year hiatus due to injury, Blum had a consistently strong senior year and ended on a high note, finishing 27th out of 280 runners and thereby earned the second All-America honor of her career.
The Stags got off to a good start, and ran strong throughout; finishing in the same team place they found themselves in only 1,000 meters into the 8k race. Following Loustalet who finished with a time of 24:55.4, senior Jack Wilson (CMC) finished 67th (25:19.9), senior Evan Molineux (CMC) 79th (25:25.5), junior Kyle Lund (HMC) 103rd (25:32.7) and sophomore Kevin Huang (HMC) 107th (25:33.7) with a 22 second PR to round out the five Stag scorers. Junior Joshua Sealand (HMC - 25:36.9) and senior Jacob Higle-Ralbovsky (HMC - 25:56.1) finished in 117th and 178th, respectively. The five scorers had team points of 23, 52, 61, 75 and 79.
The Athenas moved up in the first 2,000 meters amongst a much deeper field than they had seen prior to nationals. Following Blum, sophomore Bryn McKillop (SCR) had her best race of the season, finishing in 83rd (22:15.30), with a two second PR. McKillop was followed by junior Caroline Willian (CMC) 138th (22:35.9), junior Jen Lehr (SCR) 153rd (22:41.5) and sophomore Laura Broderick (SCR) 192th (22:54.6) who rounded out the scoring five runners for the Athenas. Junior Carmen Mejia (SCR) finished 197th (22:56.5) and junior Rachel Mow (HMC) finished 224th (23:10.8). The Athenas had team points of 17, 55, 96, 108 and 143.
This was the eighth-consecutive year that both men and women's teams qualified for the National Championships, and is the second-highest combined team finish for CMS (7th and 13th places) after their 11th and 3rd place finishes in 2011.
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