LOUISVILLE, Ky.--The Bellarmine University men's cross country team ran a big race at a big time today at the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional held at E.P. “Tom” Sawyer State Park. The Knights finished third behind Grand Valley State and Southern Indiana to claim one of the four qualifying spots for the national finals, marking the first time since 1982 that the Bellarmine harriers have made the finals.
"(Making it to the finals) has been our entire focus since Bellarmine was awarded the bid to host the Division II National Championship," said Bellarmine Head Coach
Jim Vargo, who was a member of the 1982 team.
The race was extremely close, and due to a timing malfunction, fans and participants had to wait more than an hour before the results were made final. When the final results were posted, celebrations erupted from both the Bellarmine and Drury camps, as the two Great Lakes Valley Conference schools finished tied at 126 points to narrowly slip past the fifth place Ashland Eagles by just five points.
Grand Valley, ranked No. 5 nationally, easily won the event, posting just 21 points—60 points better than runner-up and 15th-ranked Southern Indiana.
Tyler Emmorey of Grand Valley took the individual title, completing the 10-kilometer course in 30:58.72, just 5-100ths of a second in front of teammate Anthony Witt. Bellarmine was paced by junior
Jordan Parayil, who earned All-Region honors with his 15th place finish in a time of 31:56.39.
Vargo said, "Today's performance was a total team effort. We had some goals of where we wanted our runners to finish, and we pretty much hit those marks."
Bellarmine showed a lot of quality depth with all seven runners finishing in the top 54. Other Bellarmine finishes included:
Alex Jones, 23rd (32:07.8);
Nate Dotterweich, 24th (32:12.24);
Ben Draper, 27th (32:18.37);
Justin Smith, 40th (32:39.58);
Neal Masterson, 46th (32:48.15); and Robert Sandlin, 54th (33:01.62).
The national finals will be held Dec. 4, back at Sawyer Park. It is part of the NCAA Division II Fall Festival of Championships, being hosted by Bellarmine and the Louisville Sports Commission.
COMPLETE RESULTS
