SHELBYVILLE, Ind. – The Calvin men's cross country team took fourth at a loaded Great Lakes Regional meet Saturday morning with a team score of 120 points.
Franklin College served as host of the regional meet
Under the new NCAA III qualifying format, only the regional team champion receives an automatic qualifying bid with 22 at-large spots up for the national committee to give out Sunday afternoon.
Ranked 30th nationally, Calvin is hopeful for an at-large bid when the field is announced Sunday afternoon despite its fourth place finish on Saturday.
Calvin was one four nationally-ranked teams in the top four on Saturday with seventh-ranked John Carroll winning the race with a score of 62 points. 13th-ranked Otterbein was second (89 points) with 28th-ranked Case Western Reserve third (107 points) and Calvin a close fourth.
The Knights placed five runners inside the top-35, frequently good enough to win a regional meet.
Junior Brandan Knepper (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Mechanicsburg Area HS) led the Calvin charge, taking ninth with a time of 24:51 on the 8K course. Senior Ryan Vreeke (Lakewood, Ca./Valley Christian HS) had a strong day, taking 18th in a time of 25:19.
Senior Noah Cummisford (Mequon, Wisc./Homestead HS) was 28th (25:36) , freshman Nicholas Henz (Oswego, Il./Oswego East HS) 30th (25:39) and junior William Hofmann (Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich./Grosse Pointe North HS) 35th (25:48) to round out Calvin's top five.
Sophomore Eric Swinson (Fishers, Ind./Hamilton Southeast HS) and freshman Luke Witvliet (Grandville, Mich./Calvin Christian HS) had top-50 finishes with Swinson 47th (25:59) and Witvliet 48th (26:01).
With their top-35 finishes, Knepper, Vreeke, Cummisford, Henz and Hofmann received Great Lakes All-Region honors.
COACHES COMMENT: "We are very hopeful of an at-large bid when the field is announced tomorrow," said Calvin head cross country coach Brian Diemer. "We feel that our performance today and throughout the season is worthy of a bid. I thought our team had its best performance of the season today. Our region is just that loaded. We have a team with a number of runners competing at this level for the first time and I thought they did a great job today. We would love to keep going next week and have the chance to race again."
NEXT UP: Calvin will await the NCAA III Selections set to be announced Sunday afternoon.
