Men's Cross Country wins regional, on to nationals

tie 1st of 25
NCAA Regional, November 14, 2009

They did it! The Tommie men's cross country team grabbed an automatic qualifying spot into the national meet as it shared first place today with Nebraska Wesleyan in a field of 25 teams.

It's the first team trip to the NCAA neet for Coach Pete Wareham's Tommies since 2002. The 32-team race is Nov. 21 in Cleveland, Ohio. St. Thomas will make it 24th team trip to nationals in the last 36 seasons.

The Tommies and Nebraska Wesleyan each tallied 116, while St. Olaf had 117, Hamline had 121 and Grinnell had 147. St. Olaf and Hamline will learn Sunday if they receive at-large berths.

Sophomore Ben Sathre took third in a field of 177 finishers in a career-best 25:00 time. Senior Brian Sames placed ninth in 25:19; senior Mike Connell placed 14th in 25:37; sophomore Tyler Iverson placed 21st in 25:52.

The Toms' final scorer, senior Greg Dowe edged out four runners by less than two seconds, to help the Toms return to nationals. He clocked 26:53. Soph Crawford Hubbell was 106th in 27:30 and senior George Williams was 142nd in 28:46.

Click here for complete results:

http://www.grinnell.edu/athletics/mcross/includes/nc3centralmen.html