No. 11 Men's Cross Country earns automatic berth to NCAA Championships

By Alyssa Ahlers

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The No. 11-ranked Ohio Northern men’s cross country team continued its stellar season, finishing second at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional Saturday afternoon at Calvin (Mich.).

The second place finish earns the Polar Bears an automatic berth into next week’s NCAA III Cross Country Championships at St. Olaf (Minn.).

This marks the second straight season that the ONU men will compete in the National Championships.

Competing against 33 other teams, the Polar Bears (111-14) finished second with 114 points, behind No. 1-ranked Calvin with 27 points.

Leading ONU and earning All-Region honors was OAC Champion Jimmy O’Brien, finishing 5th place out of 245 runners with his season best time of 25:04.

Also earning All-Region honors was Thomas Adam in 14th place in 25:25, Alan Bowsher in 21st place in 25:39, and Eric Porter in 33rd place in 25:52

Finishing off the top seven for the Bears was Paul Lewis in 41st place in 26:03, Brent Hiser in 65th place in 26:28, and Rob Leslie in 79th place in 26:39.

Men’s Team Results
1. Calvin (Mich.) 27, 2. Ohio Northern 114, 3. Anderson (Ind.) 125, 4. Heidelberg 128, 5. Mount Union 143, t6. DePauw (Ind.) 184, t6. Tri-State (Ind.) 184, 8. Case Western 193, 9. Denison 270, 10. Kenyon 290, 11. Otterbein 315, 12. Wabash (Ind.) 335, 13. Ohio Wesleyan 359, 14. Rose-Hulman (Ind.) 404, 15. Albion (Mich.) 471, t16. Baldwin-Wallace 476, t16. Franklin (Ind.) 476, 18. Hope (Mich.) 487, 19. Oberlin 515, 20. Wimington 566, 21. Wooster 587, 22. Wittenberg 620, 23. Manchester (Ind.) 627, 24. Earlham (Ind.) 700, 25. Kalamazoo (Mich.) 712, 26. Marietta 715, 27. Alma (Mich.) 719, 28. John Carroll 722, 29. Adrian (Mich.) 793, 30. Capital 936, 31. Mt. St. Joseph 969, 32. Defiance 1,047, 33. Hanover (Ind.) 1,080, 34. Bluffton 1,112.

Top Five Finishers
1. Jed Christiansen (Calvin) 24:51, 2. Tad Hulst (Calvin) 24:54, 3. Jon Gries (Calvin) 24:58, 4. Sean Hudson (And.) 25:02, 5. Jimmy O’Brien (ONU) 25:04.

Ohio Northern Complete Results
5. Jimmy O’Brien 25:04, 14. Thomas Adam 25:25, 21 Alan Bowsher 25:39, 33. Eric Porter 25:52, 41. Paul Lewis 26:03, 64. Brent Hiser 26:28, 78. Rob Leslie 26:39.