Men's Cross Country | 11/19/2014 3:43:00 PM

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Drew Sauer, Assistant Sports Information Director, 630-637-5324

Nov. 19, 2014 -- Coming of its seventh straight NCAA Division III Midwest Region Championship last weekend, the North Central College men's cross country team is looking to carry that momentum into this weekend's National Championship, and with four of the Cardinals top seven runners having experience on the national stage, head coach Al Carius knows his team is prepared.

Running in arguably the toughest region in the nation, the top-ranked Cardinals took down four top-25 opponents last weekend at Lake Breeze Golf Course turning in a team score of 51 points while Carius was voted Midwest Region Coach of the Year, becoming the first Division III coach to earn the distinction for seven consecutive seasons.  No. 2-ranked University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire was a distant second with 108, followed by the fifth-ranked University of Wisconsin-La Crosse (110), 10th-ranked Washington University in St. Louis (135) and the 22nd-ranked University of Wisconsin-Stout (158).

Aron Sebhat was the Cardinals top-finisher, crossing the tape in fourth-place, tackling the 8,000-meter course in a time of 24 minutes, 10.2 seconds.  Travis Morrison finished close behind in sixth (24:14.2) while Troy Kelleher finished just outside the top 10 in 11th place (24:27.0).  Zach Plank crossed the line 14th (24:32.2), while Ryan Root placed 16th (24:36.7) to complete the Cardinals' scoring. Tim Vazquezturned in an 18th-place showing (24:42.7) and Ben Dickshinski finished 20th in 24:46.0.

"It's been fortunate that we've had stability within our top seven and really our top-ten, so they've really been able to rely on one another, support one another and build confidence with one another," said Carius.  "I evaluate the season by seeing progress, it seems simplistic but you want to see growth and positive momentum building through workouts and meet experience.  I feel like we've done a really nice job with that, and the second thing is if you build that momentum you just cross your fingers and pray that everyone will stay healthy heading into nationals.  At this time of the year everyone is healthy and we've prepared as well as we can, it's a very comfortable feeling."

The Cardinals have finished in the top-two in each of the last six national championships, including back-to-back titles in 2011 and 2012, before a second-place finish last season, narrowly missing out on a third straight title by just two points.  After coming so close last season Root, Kelleher, Sebhat and Dickshinski, members of last season's squad, are prepared to guide this year's team back to the top of the podium.

"The keys are taking everything we've accumulated over the year with every practice and every meet that has gotten us here, and just implementing what we've learned into this meet," said Carius.  "It's like taking a final examination, you've taken a lot of quizzes and sat through a lot of lectures, but now you take everything you've learned to the final and put it all together.  I feel like it is ironic, but we feel more prepared at the end of the season than the beginning where there are all kinds of unknowns.   At the end of the year a lot of those questions have been answered, but we are excited and really looking forward to the challenge."

This year's championship will be held at The Golf Center at Kings Island in Mason, Ohio and the Cardinal have a slight advantage, having already run the course earlier this season on Sept. 27 as the team and coaches took a long look at what the course has to offer.

"When we ran here earlier this season we thought it was relatively flat overall with some rolling hills," said Carius, "it's a fast course and if it's not raining or snowing we believe it will run pretty fast.  Having run at this course previously answers a lot of questions, like what does the start look like, how are the turns, how many hills, how flat it is and so on, but it's great to be able to already have seen what we need to do."

Saturday's men's race is scheduled to begin at 11:00 am (ET), with addition information available at the championship web page HERE.