Men's Cross Country | 9/27/2014 1:06:00 PM

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

MASON, Ohio (Sep. 27, 2014) - The course which will host the 2014 NCAA Division III National Cross Country Championships is one the North Central College men's team found to its liking on Saturday, as the No. 1-ranked Cardinals nearly posted a perfect score and finished at the top of a 31-team field in the NCAA Pre-National meet at The Golf Center at Kings Island.

North Central runners claimed the top four positions in the individual standings and won going away with just 16 points, easily outdistancing the 27th-ranked State University of New York at Geneseo, which was the runner-up with 91. 13th-ranked Loras College (Iowa) placed third with 103, followed by 16th-ranked New York University with 135 and the University of Mount Union (Ohio) with 155.

The pack of 375 finishers was paced by the Cardinals' Troy Kelleher, who collected his second individual victory in three races this season by hurrying through the 8,000-meter (five-mile) course in just 23 minutes, 36.28 seconds, averaging 4:45 per mile. North Central's Travis Morrison and Ryan Root hit the finish line together in second (23:54.40) and third place (23:54.43), respectively, while TIm Vazquez placed fourth in 24:00.45. Geneseo's Cohen-Miles Rath broke up the Cardinals' bid for a perfect score of 15 by placing fifth (24:02.62), just ahead of North Central's Zach Plank (24:05.12). 

Aron Sebhat gave the Cardinals a sixth top-10 finisher, placing ninth in 24:07.93, while Ken Hoffman (13th, 24:16.47), Ethan Adlfinger (16th, 24:27.23), Ben Dickshinski (19th, 24:28.71) and Brent Gaither (20th, 24:30.89) also finished in the top 20.

North Central travels to Notre Dame Golf Course in South Bend, Indiana on Friday for the 58th annual Notre Dame Invitational. The Cardinals will compete in the men's Gold Division race, which is scheduled to begin at 2:45 p.m.