Men's cross country eleventh at regionals
The CMU men’s cross country team will send no runners to the NCAA Championships despite an improved showing Saturday at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional meet.
CMU placed 11th out of 30 teams, scoring 262 points — an improvement over last year’s 14th-place finish — and had one of the best finishes for the program in several years.
The meet in Bloomington, Ind., was a 10K, a longer race compared to the standard 8K the team ran for much of the season.
The Chippewas were led for the final time by senior Riak Mabil, who finished 36th with a time of 32 minutes, six seconds. Mabil finished first on the team in every race he competed in this year. He also earned first-team All-Mid-American Conference honors at the MAC Championships on Oct. 31.
“He comes from another level than just test and trials,” said cross country director Willie Randolph. “Given his Achilles injury, the fact that he went out there and gave everything he had speaks volumes.”
Coming in second on the team was Tecumseh Adams (49th, 32:28), who managed to place in the top 50 as a true freshman.
“There’s not much more you can ask of from a true freshman,” assistant coach Matt Kaczor said. “To finish top 50, we were very pleased.”
Sophomore Matt Lutzke continued his return from injury, placing 59th (32:28). After several disappointing finishes earlier in the season, Lutzke earned second-team all-conference honors at MAC Championships two weeks ago, after which the coaching staff said he peaked at the right time.
Rounding out the regional meet for CMU was junior Chris Pankow (77th, 32:59), sophomore Jeremy Kiley (120th, 34:00) and junior Adam Smith (144th, 34:30).
Wisconsin took first in a race dominated by Big Ten programs. Five Big Ten teams finished in the top 10, including Wisconsin, Michigan State and Ohio State taking the first three spots. Ohio State’s Jeff See (31:03) finished first in the individual race.
MAC programs Kent State and Eastern Michigan finished ahead of the Chippewas, finishing sixth and ninth respectively.
