Men's cross country confident going into NCAA Championships

ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. — The last two races for the Elizabethtown College men's cross country team have been dominated by the Blue Jays. E-town finished one point away from a perfect score at the Landmark Conference Championships three weeks ago before claiming an automatic qualifying spot for tomorrow's NCAA Division III Championships. The men's race will begin at 1 p.m. (EST).

THE MEET
The 43rd version of the men's 8,000-meter race is set for a 1 p.m. (EST) start. It was moved up by 30 minutes due to the forecast for inclement weather. 280 competitors from 79 institutions will make up Saturday's race.

North Central College is back, seeking its Division III-leading 17th championship after winning its fourth in six years in 2014. The top four teams from last year's championship event return, including runner-up St. Olaf (Minn.), Wisconsin-La Crosse, and Washington University (Mo.).

Elizabethtown is one of 19 institutions to be represented by both its men's and women's teams.

LAST TIME OUT
Coincidentally, the last time the Elizabethtown men qualified for the national meet back in 2011, the championship race was held at Oshkosh. There, the Blue Jays finished 18th out of 32.

It was also the last time E-town had an All-American as Eric Reichert claimed his third such honor. Reichert is one of four different Jays to earn the title of All-American in the program's history. The Blue Jays have finished as high as 14th in 2001 and 2010.

HOW THEY GOT HERE
As the season went along, the Blue Jays ran better and better. Elizabethtown stormed to its second straight Landmark Conference crown three weeks back behind Zach Trama's individual championships.

At last weekend's Mideast Regional, with E-town coming in at No. 4 in the regional rankings, Trama, Matt Shenk, Sam Cooper, and Ryan Conway proved that those didn't matter and it was how you finished in the race. All four seniors finished as All-Mideast Region runners. Trama placed fourth, Shenk was seventh, and Cooper and Conway were 21st and 22nd, respectively.

With those performances, Elizabethtown took second out of 52 teams with 93 points to claim the second automatic qualifying position for the NCAA meet. It was the Jays' highest regional meet finish since also taking second in 2004 at Allegheny.

In the last national rankings before the championship meet, Elizabethtown was one of two teams to jump more than ten spots, shooting up 12 places to No. 15 (from No. 27).

CHAMPIONSHIP MEET INFO
The NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships are being hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh at Lake Breeze Golf Club in Winneconne, Wis.

The awards ceremony for both the men and women will take place at 2:45 p.m. in the university's Kolf Sports Center.

Admission of $5 per person (children under five are free) will be charged at Winneconne High School (100 Wolf Run, Winneconne 54986) for use of the shuttle service. No parking will be available at the Golf Club.

Live results of the race can be found here.

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Players Mentioned

Ryan Conway: 6' 0"; Senior

Sam Cooper: 6' 0"; Senior

Zach Trama: 6' 2"; Senior

Matt Shenk: 5' 7"; Senior

Players Mentioned

Ryan Conway
: 6' 0"; Senior

Sam Cooper
: 6' 0"; Senior

Zach Trama
: 6' 2"; Senior

Matt Shenk
: 5' 7"; Senior