Men's Cross Country | 8/29/2014 10:51:00 PM

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

Aug. 29, 2014 - Boasting eight of the first nine individual finishers, the North Central College men's cross country team turned the season-opening Elmhurst College Early Bird Invitational into an intrasquad meet Friday, as the second-ranked Cardinals topped a 13-team field by a comfortable margin at Eldridge Park.

North Central finished just one point shy of a perfect score, totaling 16 points to finish well clear of the 21st-ranked University of Chicago, which placed second with 54. The Cardinals entered a team of freshmen which placed third overall with 84 points, while the top five was rounded out by Aurora University (114) and the host Bluejays (175).

Troy Kelleher brought home the individual championship for the Cardinals, matching the meet record set by North Central's John Crain in 2012 by touring the 6,000-meter (3.7-mile) course in 18 minutes, 53.1 seconds. Teammate Aron Sebhat followed in second place with a time of 19:06.5, and fellow Cardinals Ryan Root and Ethan Adlfinger placed third (19:16.0) and fourth (19:26.8), respectively.

Ken Hoffman completed North Central's scoring by placing sixth in 19:32.5. Also cracking the individual top 10 were Zach Plank in seventh (19:34.8), Brent Gaither in eighth (19:38.2) and Juliano Lodi in ninth (19:38.2). The Cardinals' freshman team was led by Dan O'Keefe and Jake Runnion in 12th (19:48.4) and 13th (19:57.2), respectively.

North Central travels to Oakhurst Forest Preserve in Aurora on Friday for the Aurora University Invitational.