NEWVILLE, Pa. – The No. 11-ranked St. Olaf College men's cross country team recorded its highest finish at the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships since 2015 by placing 13th on Saturday morning at Blue Spring High School.
Led by a second-straight All-America finish from senior
Will Kelly, St. Olaf was 13th in the field of 32 teams to improve one spot from its finish a year ago and post its top placement as a team since a fourth-place performance in 2015. The Oles finished level with No. 12-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps with 338 points but lost the tiebreaker to the Stags, who had higher finishes from their No. 3-5 runners on the day.
The top-15 national finish was the 15th for St. Olaf since 1973, which is when the national meet changed to being exclusively among NCAA Division III programs.
Kelly ran to a second-straight All-America accolade by finishing 26th in 24:55.8 to become the eighth student-athlete in program history to become a multiple-time cross country All-American. Kelly's All-America accolade was the 31st for St. Olaf as a program.
Competing in his first national meet, sophomore
Kevin Turlington was the No. 2 finisher for the Oles and joined Kelly in the top 50 in 50th place (25:17.7). Turlington was 102nd at the 5K mark before moving up 50 spots over the final three kilometers, including surging up 33 spots over the final two kilometers to crack the top 50.
Senior
David Lynn improved 15 spots on his finish from last season and broke into the top 100 in 96th (25:41.3) in his third appearance at the NCAA Championships. Junior
Andrew Skemp jumped up 59 spots from 2022 in 117th place (25:49.0), while junior
Sean Hartney rounded out St. Olaf's five scorers in 149th (26:00.2) while running on the national stage for the first time.
Seniors
Ian Curtis and
Anders Cote also ran in the meet for the Oles, placing 182nd (26:12.9) and 259th (26:48.8), respectively. St. Olaf was appearing in the NCAA Championships for the 21st time, the fifth year in a row, and the 13th time in the last 15 seasons.
Eighth-ranked Pomona Pitzer edged top-ranked UW-La Crosse by one point for the team title with 158 points, while Ethan Gregg brought home the individual title for the top-ranked Eagles with a wire-to-wire win in 24:02.4.
