AU Men’s Cross Country Team Prepares for National Meet
November 16, 2007 (Anderson Release)
NORTHFIELD, MINN.- The Anderson University men’s cross country team will be competing in the NCAA Div. III National Championships this Saturday at St. Olaf, Minn. The race is scheduled to start at noon.
The top 32 teams advanced to the national meet with the Ravens finishing third at the Great Lakes Regional in Grand Rapids, Mich., last weekend. AU is ranked 22nd in the nation and third in the region.
“What they did was outstanding,” said Wilson of the AU men. “We were ranked eighth and finished third so we put it all together that day. The key was hitting that first mile split at the right pace. When you have so many people it’s hard to do that.”
The Ravens earned their fourth national appearance in the last nine years (1999, 2000, 2005 and 2007), knocking off three ranked teams in the process. Only No. 1 Calvin and No. 11 Ohio Northern finished ahead of AU.
“We want to perform at the same level we did last week and if we do that, we think we can get the highest NCAA finish by an AU team,” said Wilson. AU’s highest finish at the national meet was 17th in 2005.
At the regional, Sean Hudson led the Ravens with a fourth place finish individually in a time of 25:02.65. Personally, it was the senior’s second best career time. The top three finishers were all from No. 1 Calvin.
Hudson was joined on the All-Regional team with Matt Ingalls (19th, 25:35.90), Matt Helm (27th, 25:45.15) and Troy Pryor (29th, 25:47.65). All three had personal best times in the meet.
“Sean has a good chance to be an All-American and that is exciting,” said Wilson. “There are 60-70 guys that have a chance to be in the top 35. The key is to not get distracted by more people running and cheering and run your own race.”