(Photo courtesy of Sarah Miesle, Saint Mary's College)
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Calvin men's cross country team captured its 34th consecutive MIAA title on Friday, finishing with a first place team score of 22 points at the MIAA Cross Country Championships on the campus of Saint Mary's College.
Hope took second in the team standings with 49 points with Trine third with 67 points.
Ranked 32nd nationally, Calvin placed seven runners in the top 10 and featured a spread of just 36 seconds between its top and fifth finisher as the Knights featured powerful pack running.
Junior Brandan Knepper (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Mechanicsburg HS) also featured powerful running up front as he won a sprint to the finish to win the race by a three-second margin over Hope senior Nicholas Hoffman.
Knepper led a Calvin pack until the final mile of the 8K race and then began a duel with Hoffman for the win and the MIAA MVP crown. With 150 meters to go, the two broke into a sprint through a rain-soaked course with Knepper pulling away in the final stretch to win the race.
Senior Ryan Vreeke (Lakewood Ca./Valley Christian HS) also had a clutch performance, taking third in a time of 25:27, finishing six seconds ahead of a runner from Hope.
Freshman Thaine Nederveld (Columbus, Oh./Columbus Alternative HS) continued his superlative weekend, placing fifth individually with a time of 25:36.
Senior Noah Cummisford (Mequon, Wisc./Homestead HS) was close behind in sixth place, clocking in with a time of 25:41.
Sophomore Eric Swinson (Fishers, Ind./Hamilton Southeast HS) was seventh in 25:43 while junior William Hofmann (Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich./Grosse Pointe North HS) was right behind in eighth (25:44) and freshman Luke Witvliet (Grandville, Mich./Calvin Christian HS) ninth in 25:46.
Freshman Nicholas Henz (Oswego, Il./Oswego East HS) placed 14th in 26:10. Senior Micah Meindertsma (Caledonia, Mich./Caledonia HS) motored his way to 15th (26:18) while sophomore Caleb Gaffner (Hudsonville, Mich./Unity Christian HS) was 16th in 26:24.
In addition to being named the MIAA's Most Valuable Runner, Knepper was named to the All-MIAA First Team with Vreeke, Nederveld, Cummisford, Swinson and Hoffmann from Calvin.
Witvliet, Henz, Meindertsma and Gaffner were named to the All-MIAA Second Team.
The MIAA title was the 43rd of head coach Brian Diemer's illustration Calvin coaching career. He is the winningest coach in terms of conference championships of any coach in MIAA athletics history.
COACHES COMMENT: "I'm very proud of our men. Wow, what a great team performance," said Calvin head cross country Brian Diemer. "The atmosphere today was terrific. There was so much maroon and gold out either racing or cheering our team on which was wonderful. Brandan Knepper really had a strong race and showed a lot of heart at the finish. Our entire team showed heart though and there were a ton of tremendous performances. Our guys were awesome. They wanted this one badly. Winning MIAA Championships is not something our program has ever taken for granted. So many runners have contributed to this (championship) run. I'm proud of every runner who has worn the Calvin singlet. We have two weeks now to prepare for regionals. This team has some momentum going. Our goal is to get back to nationals. We know we need to run well at the regional meet to achieve that goal."
NEXT UP: Calvin will now prepare for the NCAA III Great Lakes Regional Meet on November 13 in Franklin, Indiana.
