Shortly after the halfway point of the 2009 NCAA Division III Men's Cross Country Championships at Highland Park Golf Course in Cleveland, Ohio, the meet announcer indicated that the North Central College Cardinals, with its entire team near the front of the pack, had an "almost unbeatable" lead in the team competition.

By the time the race ended, North Central had long since erased "almost" from the discussion.

With all seven competing runners earning All-America status, the Cardinals decimated the field, finishing with just 50 points, the fourth-lowest winning total in the meet's history. Runner-up Williams College finished with 181 points, giving North Central the largest margin of victory ever at the Division III Championships.

"Without question, this was a great team effort," noted head coach Al Carius, whose teams have now won 13 national cross country championships and 18 national titles overall. "These guys have been unified all year long, they've believed in each other, and they've run for each other.

"It takes everybody. No one individual can beat a team, and no one person can make a team. These guys have believed that, and believed in their process, especially these seniors because it's been a long time coming. I'm really proud of these kids."

As the race unfolded, the Cardinals took their time settling into position, conserving energy on a hilly, rain-soaked course. Peter Kosgei of Hamilton College, the defending individual national champion, and Ricky Flynn of Lynchburg College took off ahead of the pack early and staged a two-man duel up front as the Cardinals' Neal Klein led the chase pack.

"We wanted to make sure we ran the four parts of the race well," Carius said. "We had to get in position, we had to find our cadence, we wanted to maintain that cadence, and then be able to have that gear at the end to finish it off. These kids executed it perfectly. They ran each part of the race just beautifully."

By the 4,000-meter mark of the 8,000-meter (five-mile) race, four of North Central's harriers were among the top 11 competitors but all seven were advancing their positions. In the final mile, Flynn broke free and won the individual title in a time of 25 minutes, 9.8 seconds, and Michael Spain opened the candy stripe-clad Cardinals' scoring by placing second in 25:32.2, outracing Williams' Edger Kosgey down the stretch.

"It was a tough race," Spain said. "I didn't want to do anything stupid and risk anything. I like hills, so I made a move going up the hill in the last mile (to move into second place) and decided to see how long I could keep it up."

Ryan Carrigan, the runner-up to Spain at the previous week's Midwest Regional Championships, crossed the line sixth in 25:37.4, while Nathaniel Hird turned in a 13th-place finish in 25:46.7. Klein and Kyle Brady finished 19th (25:54.9) and 21st (25:58.2), respectively, to seal the team title.

Nathan Rutz sprinted home in 25th place (25:59.9) and Sean Carlson, the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin individual champion this season, used a strong stretch run to place 32nd (26:06.6) to net the Cardinals' seventh All-America certificate of the day. Less than 35 seconds separated North Central's seven runners.

"Right from the beginning, we knew this course was going to eat people up," Carrigan said. "We're the srongest team here, and we knew it was going to be a strength course, and that's exactly what it was. We just used our legs and stayed smart."

The championship was the Cardinals' first since 1999, and completed a return to the top of the national scene that had been spearheaded by North Central's upperclassmen.

"Every year, we saw our improvement," Carrigan said. "Every year, we believed we were going to be the team that we are this year. It took four years, but this is what we've been training for. This is what we've wanted to do ever since we got here."

- post-race release by Clark Teuscher, North Central College Sports Information Director