CANTON, N.Y. - The Williams College men's cross-country team put in a strong performance at the NCAA Division III Mideast Region Championships at the Ronald C. Hoffmann Cross Country Course at St. Lawrence University on Saturday morning, finishing second in a strong field.
The Ephs put themselves in an excellent position to earn an at-large bid to next weekend's National Championship race, edging out NESCAC rivals Middlebury, Wesleyan, and Amherst to finish behind the first-place Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, who earned the region's automatic qualifier.
Eli Welch, winner of the NESCAC Championship two weeks ago in Connecticut, was the first Eph across the line, finishing in 8th place with a time of 25:21 on the muddy and challenging 8k course.
Four seniors were the next Williams runners to finish, as Luke Zanuck (13th, 25:24), Rick Yanashita (21st, 25:38), Nikhil DeNatale (26th, 25:41) and Ryan Hardiman (27th, 25:42) rounded out the team's top five.
Sophomores Keiyu Mamiya (33rd, 25:49) and Malcolm Oakes (34th, 25:53) placed 6th and 7th on the team, and pushed rival runners down in the standings to earn some critical points for the Ephs.
Williams finished with a team score of 95 points, ahead of Middlebury (104), Wesleyan (109), and Amherst (111). RPI won the event with an impressive 44 points, placing five runners inside the top 14 of the race.
The team will now wait for at-large bids to be announced on Sunday. The top team from each of 10 regional championships held across the country today will earn automatic qualification for next weekend's National Championship race, with an additional 22 schools earning at-large bids for the championships.
The NCAA Championship will be held next Saturday, November 22, at Roger Milliken Cross Country Course in Spartanburg, South Carolina; hosted by Converse University, Limestone University and OneSpartanburg, Inc. The men's race will take place at 10am, with the women's race following at 11am. Streaming and live results will be available online and will be linked on the Ephs teams' schedule pages.
