Contact: Clark Teuscher, Sports Information Director, 630-637-5302

Results

WINNECONE, Wis. (Nov. 12, 2016) - A second-place showing in last season's NCAA Division III Midwest Region Championship left the North Central College men's cross country team searching to begin a streak of one on Saturday, and the Cardinals left no doubt by claiming four of the top eight individual places and winning an eighth regional title in nine years at Lake Breeze Golf Club.

No. 1-ranked North Central finished with a score of just 37 points to win a 28th regional crown, with the No. 4-ranked University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire claiming the second automatic qualifying spot for the national championships with a score of 91. The fifth-ranked University of Wisconsin-La Crosse placed third (104), followed by 11th-ranked Washington University in St. Louis (138) and the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (200).

Defending individual national champion Ian LaMere of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville repeated as the Midwest Region champion, separating himself from the lead pack early and completing the 8,000-meter (five-mile) course in 24 minutes, 1.1 seconds. Zach Plank led the Cardinals across the line in second place in the 244-man field, posting a season-best time of 24:19.3.

North Central put themselves in a dominant position shortly thereafter as Dhruvil Patel, Ethan Adlfinger and Al Baldonado finished fifth (24:49.9), seventh (24:53.2) and eighth (24:56.8), respectively, before Zach Hird sealed the deal by completing the Cardinals' scoring in 15th (25:03.2). North Central also got a 17th-place finish from Omar Gomez (25:08.6) and a 25th-place showing from Dan O'Keefe (25:24.3).

The Division III National Championships will be contested next Saturday at E.P. Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Kentucky. The men's race is scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m. Eastern time. The Cardinals will be pursuing a 17th team national championship.