NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The regionally-ranked St. Olaf College men's cross country team won its fifth consecutive conference title by posting a 52-point margin of victory at the 2026 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Cross Country Championships on Saturday at St. Olaf Cross Country Course.
St. Olaf extended its streak of conference championships to a half-decade and claimed its 16th MIAC team title by recording a score of 36 points to finish 52 points ahead of second-place Carleton College. The Oles' margins of victory in their five titles in a row are 52, 51, 73, 31, and 27 points. St. Olaf's five consecutive titles match the longest streak in program history (2012-16).
St. Olaf had five All-MIAC performances (top 15) and six Honorable Mention All-MIAC performances (places 16-25) in a race where it had 13 of the top-28 individual finishers. Junior
Garrett Seppanen led the way with a runner-up showing in 25:09.9, finishing just under 13 seconds behind individual champion Cole Stencel of Saint John's University. Seppanen's second-place finish came after he was 31st at the conference meet a year ago.
Sophomore
Connor Hitchcock, senior
Alex Bjork, junior
Corbin Hobert, and senior
Quinn McCabe all joined Seppanen in claiming All-MIAC honors in the top 15. Hitchcock picked up his second all-conference honor in a row in fifth (25:29.7), Bjork placed eighth (25:41.6) after back-to-back honorable-mention finishes the last two years, Hobert took ninth (25:45.8), and McCabe moved all the way up from 44th last year to 12th (25:54.8).
St. Olaf took six of the 10 honorable-mention spots with top-25 finishes from sophomore
Noah DuVivier (16th), first year
Lev Dougherty (17th), first year
Owen Riter (20th), sophomore
Ian Guasco (21st), sophomore
Evan Goddard (22nd), and senior
Ethan Cozine (25th). DuVivier's honorable-mention accolade was his second in a row.
The Oles will shift their focus to hosting the NCAA Division III North Region Championships at 12 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 14. Before then, St. Olaf's runners who will not race at the regional will finish their seasons at the AECMA at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 5.
