WATERLOO - Southwestern's men's cross country team finished fourth in a strong field last week at the Region XI Division I Championships held at South Hills Golf Course.
The Division I race featured three teams ranked in the top 11 of the USTFCCCA national rankings. The Spartans finished fourth with 112 points behind Iowa Central, Iowa Western and Indian Hills.
Five of the seven Spartans competing ran PRs over the 8K race distance, including freshman Jon McCall, who led the Spartans with a 28th-place finish and cut 34 seconds off his previous PR to be the third Spartan harrier this season to run under the school's 28:00 qualifying standard. McCall's time of 27:56.2 earned him a ticket to next weekend's NJCAA Championships in Richmond, Virginia.
York Miles competed in his first meet since Sept. 18 at the Greeno-Dirksen Invite, and placed 30th in 28:16.6.
"I am so excited for Jonny to finally hit that qualifying standard," Southwestern Director of Cross Country/Track & Field Scott Vicker said. "I've known all season he's had it in him, so for him to put it together in his final chance to qualify and run that time was great to see. Qualifying for nationals as a freshman is a big deal for Jon and should give him plenty of confidence. It was also great to have York back on the course for us. It was a needed tune-up for him before nationals next week after not having raced in six weeks."
Freshman Robert Norton finished 40th overall in 28:53.6 for a 31-second PR, while freshman Conrad Schroeder ran 30:02.3 for a 24-second PR. Sophomore Nicholas Mather ended his cross country career with a 26-second PR in 30:03.2. Sophomore Connor Koppa also ended his cross country career with a PR, running 30:14.7 for a 15-second PR. Sophomore Levi Detrick was just 1 second off of a season's best time, running 33:21.7.
"In many ways, this season didn't pan out quite like the guys had hoped," Vicker said. "So I'm incredibly happy for those guys to end their seasons with PRs and for Levi to have made as much improvement throughout the season as he did."
Southwestern will finish its season at the NJCAA Championships in Richmond, Virginia, next weekend. The Spartans had three individual qualifiers for nationals - Josh Baudler, Miles, and McCall. Baudler, whose season was cut short due to injury, will not compete. Miles and McCall will toe the line at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 13.
