Results
Great Midwest Men's XC Records
Great Midwest Women's XC Records
PITTSBURGH, Pa. – Amidst mud, rain and two restarts, three student-athletes from the Great Midwest Athletic Conference took their place at the awards podium as NCAA Cross Country All-Americans on Saturday.
The NCAA DII Championships was conducted at Schenley Park, but weather conditions wreaked havoc on the 10K and 6K course layouts and bogged down times for the entire field.
The Great Midwest had multiple representatives at the men’s and women’s races as part of the Division II Festival hosted by Slippery Rock University, Clarion University and SportsPITTSBURGH.
Cedarville and Walsh ran in the men’s side along with Hillsdale individual qualifier Joseph Humes while the women had Hillsdale and Walsh in the field. Qualification for nationals included performance at regionals and an additional selection show for at-large bids.
Student-athletes who placed in the top 40 of either race were officially crowned as NCAA Division II All-Americans. Hillsdale’s Humes came in 25th in the men’s 10K with a time of 33:04.40.
There were 261 men’s runners entered in the 10K and Humes is just the third All-American in Great Midwest history (Matt Brooker, Cedarville; Benjamin Tuttle, Cedarville).
Walsh was making its second consecutive team appearance and would finish 18th in the scoring out of 34 schools. The Cavaliers’ top finisher was senior Jacob Kernell, who crossed the line with a time of 34:13.60 for 76th overall.
Cedarville made its third NCAA Championships appearance in seven years as one of the league’s charter members. The Yellow Jackets finished with 617 points in the team scoring to come in 24th overall.
Cedarville’s top finisher in the field was senior Ethan Sullivan with an top-100 finish at 96th. He ran his final 10K collegiate race with a time of 34:34.40.
The women’s 6K race followed the men’s competition and made for some tough footing on the hills as Walsh finished 12th and Hillsdale came in 19th. A few familiar faces grabbed All-American honors as Walsh senior Brianna Coy (13th) and Hillsdale’s Arena Lewis (37th) both had top-40 performances.
The Great Midwest had its first three women’s NCAA All-Americans recognized last year with Sarah Berger (Walsh), Hannah McIntyre (Hillsdale) and Jade Smith (Malone), all finishing in the top 20.
This year, Berger, competing as a graduate student-athlete for Grand Valley State University, won the individual national title after finishing as last year’s runner-up. Berger also helped the Lakers win the team national women’s title.