Officially, the difference between first and second place in the team standings at the 2011 NCAA Division III Outdoor Men's Track & Field Championships was two points, but in reality, it was a mere two-tenths of a second that determined the order on the awards stand at Ohio Wesleyan University's Selby Stadium.

A gutsy performance by its 4-by-400-meter relay team in the final event of the meet proved to be the difference for North Central College, as the Cardinals fought off a stern challenge from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse to claim its second straight outdoor national title. North Central totaled 58 points, while La Crosse was an extremely close runner-up with 56.

The hoisting of the team trophy was the culmination of a weekend of big-time performances for the Cardinals, who swept the Division III Indoor and Outdoor Championships for the second straight year. North Central collected a total of four individual national championships during the three-day meet, including two with the team title on the line on the final day.

Michael Spain opened the Cardinals' scoring with a national championship in the 10,000-meter run, turning in a time of 29:58.92, and teammate Daniel Kerley crossed the line fifth in 30:34.45 to tack on four more points for North Central.

"I felt pretty strong at the end," Kerley said. "I felt smooth and I just kept thinking I needed to finish well. Before the race, Mike (Spain) said not to worry about place until about two miles to go, and then just give it your all. That's what I tried to do."

The second day of competition brought the Cardinals 18 more points, all of which came in the pole vault. Peter Geraghty led the charge by winning the event with an outdoor personal-best clearance of 17 feet, 3 inches, while Josh Winder and John Wood each cleared 16'7 1/4" to finish fourth and sixth, respectively.

"For the most part I just felt very alert, very focused and really relaxed," Geraghty said. "That's what I was aiming to do. I didn't want to come in and try to accomplish something I had never done before. I just wanted to perform and do what I knew I could do."

North Central headed into Saturday's action first in the team standings with 32 points, and got 10 more when Daniel Benton took to the track for the 400-meter dash final and dominated the field. Benton pulled away down the home stretch and hit the finish line in 46.84 seconds, breaking his own North Central record. 

"I knew I was going to have to run faster than I ever have," said Benton, who had been the national runner-up twice indoors. "I just knew I had to do it for the team. The way (head coach Frank Gramarosso) trains us is to run our own race and not worry about times or other runners, and obviously it worked out."

Strong performances in a series of events helped UW-La Crosse move into the lead, and the Eagles eventually worked their way into a 51-42 advantage with two events remaining. Spain took to the track once again for the Cardinals as the favorite in the 5,000-meter run and put North Central back in front with another championship performance.

As he did in the 10,000, Spain moved up midway through the race and attempted to string out the field with a steady, consistent surge. However, a cluster of five individuals hung in and persisted to force the issue, and after leading for several laps, Spain dropped back into sixth place with two laps to go as the pace continued to heat up.

With just under a lap remaining, Spain summoned his remaining reserves and bolted for the lead, moving back in front with 150 meters left and storming away impressively to win by nearly two seconds in 14:41.15.

"What a great way to go out," Spain said. "Whether I won or not, I'm glad I can leave here knowing I put everything I had on the table. I had no idea what to expect. It was slow, I took the lead and tried to break them and they wouldn't break. My teammates started making noise, and I remembered I was running for them too. That's what took me home."

With the Cardinals back in front, 52-51, the 4x400 relay developed into a head-to-head match race between the two top teams. After Jonathan Caron and Randal Ellison kept North Central in the thick of a hotly-contested race for the first two legs, Jon Howard took the baton and brought the Cardinals to the front, just as he had in the preliminary heats.

Benton, attempting to turn in his fourth quality one-lap sprint in three days, brought North Central to the line just behind first-place finisher Ramapo College (N.J.) and runner-up McMurry University (Tex.), but hit the line in 3:11.64 to narrowly outdistance La Crosse's squad, which was clocked in 3:11.84. 

"We looked forward to it a lot," said Howard of the opportunity to seal the team championship for North Central. "Mike Spain coming up big in the 5,000 gave us a lot of confidence, but we definitely went in knowing that we had to perform. Just knowing that we've got the title, and that all the hard work we put in this season paid off, is really exciting."

The win capped off a banner year for Gramarosso, whose teams claimed indoor and outdoor conference and national titles in his first year as the program's head coach.

"I'm kind of at a loss for words," Gramarosso said. "We just kind of chipped away as a team all weekend. Track is an individual sport, but I think we've developed teams within our team that really feed off each other. It was great to have the number of qualifiers that we had, and it takes that many people because there are always going to be disappointments and surprises. 

"La Crosse is a great team, but we have a great team as well. Fortunately, we were able to stay ahead and get the win."