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Grantham, PA – The Messiah men's cross country team played host to the MAC Cross Country Championships on Saturday morning, and they finished in third place behind Widener and DeSales. Messiah finished with 85 points, which tied them with the Bulldogs, but DeSales earned the tiebreaker thanks to better placements in three of the five scorers between the two teams.
Once again leading the way for the men was sophomore
Benjamin Schott, who took third place overall with his time of 26:24.1. Schott was in sixth early on at the two-mile mark, but worked his way up to third by the time mile four came around. Finishing ahead of Schott in first and second were Widener runners Ernie Pitone (25:31.8) and Will McDermott (26:09.1), respectively. The Pride's performance, which included three runners in the top five, led to their fourth-straight MAC Championship.
Schott's time was not only the team's best finish of the day, but also earned him First Team All-MAC honors.
Finishing behind Schott for the Falcons and earning Second Team All-MAC honors was
Joshua Pardoe (27:27.7). He finished 15th overall, and teammate
Alex Scheib (27:39.1) was four spots behind in 19th place, good for Second Team like Pardoe. After them were
Kaleb Burch in 22nd (27:45.0) and
Zachary Lofties in 26th (27:54.9).
The Falcons had high hopes for a top-two finish, but ultimately came up short in what could have been a big day. The impact of the tiebreaker with DeSales could not be overstated. In two of the three closest point-scoring comparisons (Scheib and Burch), the Bulldogs edged out the Falcons by just one point. DeSales' runner Kyle Gonoude also beat Lofties by just three places.
"Compared to what we thought could happen going into the event, we scored better than imagined," said head coach
Dale Fogelsanger of the three point separation between Messiah and DeSales and champion Widener. "But we ran with a lot of pride on our home course, and owned it.
"We just came up a little short."
Messiah next travels to the NCAA Mideast Regional Meet on Nov. 12 at DeSales University in Center Valley, Pa.
Final Results
- Widener – 82
- DeSales – 85*
- Messiah – 85*
- Misericordia – 108
- Stevenson – 117
- Lebanon Valley – 135
- Eastern – 166
- King's (Pa.) – 219
- Wilkes – 274
- Alvernia – 313
- Lycoming – 330
- Arcadia – 350
- Hood – 391
- Delaware Valley – 427
- FDU-Florham – 431
- Albright – 47
