Early calamity did not deter the North Central College men's cross country team in its quest for a 14th national title on Nov. 19 at the Lake Breeze Golf Course in Winneconne, Wis., rallying from the early setback to return to the top of the podium for the second time in three years at the NCAA Division III Championships.

For the second straight season the national title came down to a battle between the Midwest Region Champion Cardinals and the Haverford College (Pa.) Fords, champions of the Mideast Region. North Central looked to be against the ropes early with both Dan Kerley and Matt Brinkmeier falling in the initial melee at the start, before regrouping for the blowout victory.

"It's really hard to put into words how proud I am of this team and how they have run the entire season and the growth that has taken place," said head coach Al Carius.

"It was a battle out there. We wanted to get good position and then maintain that position throughout the race, but we had two of our top runners that went down shortly after the start. Kerley and Brinkmeier went down. They were almost last going around the first turn. So getting good position with some of our top runners really didn't happen as planned and that's what I think really makes today so special. They just kept battling back and back."

The Cardinals tallied 110 points in the standings while the runner-up Fords accumulated a team score of 172. Washington University in Saint Louis was third (206 points) with the State University of New York-Geneseo (235 points) and host University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh (277) rounding out the top five.

Matt Perez, the 2011 Midwest Region champion, paced the Cardinals, earning All-America accolades for the second straight season with a fifth place showing, completing the 8,000-meter course in 24 minutes, 15.17 seconds. Neal Klein was the second Cardinal to cross the tape, earning his third career All-America certificate, finishing in 15th (24:33.10).

"Perez and Klein are two young men you can really rally behind, and the rest of the team really filled in."

Kerley regrouped from an early tumble to place 37th in a time of 24:50.56 while Kevin Sparks was 41st in 24:52.98. Kerley was sitting in 148th place after one mile of racing before gradually picking off runners, improving to 86th after two miles and 49th after three miles.

John Crain rounded out the scoring contingent, placing 48th in 24:56.66. Brinkmeier, who took a spill near the start, raced to a 49th place finish in 25:01.70 while Yonatan Mascote finished in 26:05.16.

"Coming into this race, we knew we had all of our teammates and alumni there supporting us," said Perez. "Even though we weren't packed up together, I knew in my mind we were all running for each other."

Ben Sathre of the University of Saint Thomas claimed the individual national title, completing the race in 23:44.27.

North Central is the only institution to appear in all 39 NCAA Division III Men's Cross Country Championships and has finished among the top four on 35 occasions.

With the victory, North Central has now captured 28 National Titles in all sports, including 24 at the NCAA Division III level. In addition to the 14 cross country crowns (1975, 1976, 1978, 1981, 1982, 1987, 1992, 1993, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2009, 2011) the Cardinals have tallied three indoor track & field titles (1989, 2010, 2011), six outdoor track & field titles (1989, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2010, 2011), one women's basketball title (1983) and four NAIA titles in men's swimming (1958, 1961, 1962, 1963).