XC NCAA's: Stags 19th, Athenas 20th, Tavé All-American

The men's and women's cross country teams competed at the NCAA Division III Championships on Saturday in Waverly, IA.  The Stags finished 19th and the Athenas finished 20th.  Jennifer Tavé (JR, St. Germain, France) finished seventh individually and earned All-American honors.  The men scored 501 points and were the top finishing team from the West Region.  The women scored 475 points.

Tavé [pictured below] ran in the top ten of the 280-runner field for the majority of the race and earned her second straight All-American honor.  Her time of 21:22.9 was a personal best by 32 seconds and is the fastest 6K (3.73 mile) time in CMS and SCIAC history.  She is CMS' 17th NCAA Cross Country All-American (tied for ninth among all schools) and is the fourth CMS runner to earn the honor at least twice.  Kerrin Smith (FR, Dover, MA) finished 141st in 22:44.6, Julia Rigby (JR, Tustin) was 151st in 22:48.8, Alison Gushue (JR, Tustin) was 173rd in 22:57.3 and Adele Eslinger (FR, Edmonds, WA) was 194th in 23:04.9.  After removing the individuals, CMS had team scoring places of 5, 97, 106, 124 and 143.  Allison Barnwell (FR, Seward, AK) and Laura Wyatt (SO, La Jolla) were the sixth and seventh runners for the Athenas in 216th and 236th (23:14.3 and 23:29.6).  Personal bests were run by Smith, Gushue and Eslinger.  CMS was one of only six teams in the race without a senior running and one of only six competing with three first years.  This was the team's 13th team appearance at the NCAA Championships.

The Stags were led by Brian Sutter (SO, Monroe, WA).  He finished 67th overall with a time of 25:16.7 for the 8K (4.97 mile) distance.  Brian Kopczynski (SR, Coto de Caza) was 86th in 25:21.9, Kris Brown (SR, Seattle, WA) was 132nd in 25:39.7,  Bennett Naden (SO, Middleton, WI) was 188th in 26:00.1 and Rafer Dannenhauer (SO, Shutesbury, MA) was 193rd in 26:03.5.  After removing the individuals, CMS had team scoring places of 52, 65, 98, 141 and 145.  Georgi Dinolov (SR, Santa Cruz) and Bryan Chow (JR, Livermore) were the sixth and seventh runners for the Stags in 220th and 239th (26:17.9 and 26:35.1).  Personal bests were run by Kopczynski, Naden and Dannenhauer.  Kopczynski is the third Stag to compete at the NCAA Championships four times.  This was the team's ninth team appearance at the NCAA Championships.