Men Place 4th, Women 7th at NCAA Championships
November 20th, 2007NAU Cross Country men’s and women’s team placed 4th and 7th at the NCAA Championships yesterday in Terre Haute, In, respectively. Going into the meet, the men were ranked 6th and the women were ranked 15th by the coaches’ poll.
For the men, Junior Lopez Lomong led the way with his 3rd place finish (after finishing 4th last year) in a time of 29:45.4 behind Josh McDougal of Liberty and Galen Rupp of Oregon. David McNeil was the first freshman, finishing in 10th in 29:56.8. Senior Marten Bostrom was 47th in 30:40.6 and Senior Jon Cardenas was 75th in 30:57.3. Rounding out the top-5 was Ben Ashkettle in 105th with a time of 31:09.3. Senior Justing Langdon and Freshman Eric Lynch were 181st in 31:46.1 and 201st in 32:06.6.
The women were led by Freshman Ilsa Paulson’s 30th place finish in 20:56.1. Senior Lesley Van Miert was next for the Lumberjacks in 21:13.8 in 55th. Sophomores Amanda Boyd and Amanda Griggs were 113th in 21:38.6 and 133rd in 21:46.7, respectively. NAU’s final scorer was Freshman Astrid Leutert in 149th with a time of 21:53.4. Sophomore Nell Rojas and Senior Kelsy Hardt were 224th in 22:46.4 and 232nd in 23:02.1, respectively.
This was the first time the men qualified the NCAA Championship meet since 2003 when they were third. The mens team scored 190 points behind Oregon’s 85, Iona’s 113, and Oklahoma State’s 180th.
The women’s 7th place finish was the highest in over 15 years (3rd in 1991).
Lopez Lomong, David McNeil, and Ilsa Paulson earned All-American honors for placing in the top-30. Lomong’s finish ties Bo Reed’s 3rd place finish in 1988 for the highest place in school history on the men’s team.
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