Men's Cross Country | 9/12/2014 9:44:00 PM

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

Sep. 12, 2014 - The North Central College men's cross country team split squads on Friday and finished near the front of two fields of quality competition, placing third in an all-NCAA Division I field at the Country Financial Illinois State University Invitational and a second-place showing in the Illinois Intercollegiate Invitational at Olivet Nazarene University.

The Cardinals, ranked second in the most recent NCAA Division III rankings, came within 10 points of topping its Division I opposition at Illinois State. North Central totaled 58 points to finish behind only the University of Iowa (48) and Indiana State University (52). Rounding out the field were the host Redbirds (94), Loyola University Chicago (96), the University of Illinois-Chicago (164) and DePaul University (201).

Indiana State's John Mascari claimed the individual championship, finishing the 8,000-meter (five-mile) course in 23 minutes, 54 seconds to post a seven-second win over Loyola's Sam Pezenstadler. North Central was led by Troy Kelleher in sixth place (24:32), while Travis Morrison also cracked the top 10, finishing eighth in 24:37.

Aron Sebhat placed 11th (24:52), and the Cardinals' scoring was completed by Ryan Root in 16th (25:03) and Zach Plank in 17th (25:05).

North Central totaled 53 points at the Illinois Intercollegiate Invitational to claim runner-up status in a 14-team field behind the host Tigers (26). Augustana College placed third (64), followed by Harper College (136) and Elmhurst College (162).

Olivet Nazarene's Ethan Gallagher won the individual title in 25:06.5, while the Cardinals were led by Tim Vazquez's third-place showing in 25:13.0. Kevin McMahon added an eighth-place finish in 25:35.4, followed by Dan O'Keefe in 15th (25:51.6), Juliano Lodi in 16th (25:54.9) and Brent Gaither in 18th (26:03.1).

North Central is idle until Friday, Sep. 26, when it sends a squad to St. James Farm in Warrenville for the College of DuPage Invitational.