Men's cross country places 2nd at regional, advances to NCAA Championships

The IU men’s cross country team earned a second-place finish on Saturday at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional, automatically advancing to the NCAA Championships.

The Hoosier men will advance to the championships for the first time since 2007, while placing in the top two in the regional meet for the first time since 1987. The men’s top five runners all placed in the top 25, including junior Andrew Poore, sophomore Andy Bayer and junior Ben Hubers, finishing 10th, 11th and 12th, respectively.

All three Hoosiers finished within 1.21 seconds of fourth place as they raced in the crowded field.

Coach Ron Helmer said he was impressed by his team’s success because of the runners’ abilities to stay within themselves to finish behind Wisconsin.

“I thought they did a really nice job of doing what they needed to do,” Helmer said. “We knew Wisconsin was very good, and we felt that we could be the second-place team. We went out and got an automatic berth without overextending ourselves.”

The women’s cross country team did not enjoy the same results as the men, but were led by senior Sarah Pease to a team finish of fifth place with a score of 167.

Pease paced the women as she finished 16th overall with a time of 21:08.93. Pease was followed by sophomore Samantha Ginther, junior Helene DeLone and sophomore Erica Ridderman in 31st, 35th and 37th, respectively.

The fifth-place finish by the women did not earn them an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships.