JOPLIN, Mo. -- The historic Davis & Elkins Cross Country season came to an end at the Tom Rutledge Cross Country Course Saturday morning as both teams competed in the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships.
The men's team, competing in the 10K course, averaged 31:42.0 to finish twenty-eighth overall. The twenty-eighth-place finish equaled their ranking and represents the highest finish in D&E Cross Country history as the women's program finished twenty-ninth in 2019.
Sophomore
Jan Thewes was D&E's top men's finisher, placing eighty-third with a time of 30:58.4.
The women, competing in the 6K course, averaged 23:24.4 to finish thirty-fourth overall.
Sophomore
Savanna Hardman was the top Senator woman finisher, completing the course in 22:59.2 and finishing 223rd overall.
"I'm super proud of this team!," shared head coach
Jason Pyles. "We had high goals, so of course we wanted to be a little bit higher than we finished. But the experience we gained today is going to be so important for the years to come and especially next year when we are on that national championship line in Sacramento! We put everything we had into just getting here and what an accomplishment that was for both of these groups! This season was one that was extra special. A season I won't ever forget as they battled all year to earn their #RoadtoJoplin"
Fellow Mountain East Conference institution, the University of Charleston also qualified both teams for the Championships. The Golden Eagle men finished seventeenth, while the women finished twenty-ninth.
Concord's Logan Zuchelli qualified as an individual and finished 131st overall in the men's 10K.
Wingate University (men) and Grand Valley State University (women) won team titles, while William Amponsah of West Texas A&M and Lindsay Cunningham of Winona State were the individual champs.
"Of the fourteen men and women who raced today, twelve are back and there are many back on campus who are motivated to move up," continued Pyles. "Last year at this time
Jan Thewes wasn't even in our teams top ten and now he is the second-highest finishing D&E individual runner ever in an NCAA Championships. So, a lot can change in a year when you are motivated! One thing is for sure this team is committed to continuing to move D&E up the latter and leave their legacy! I'm excited for their future! I'm also very thankful for the two seniors who ran their last cross country race in a D&E singlet. I can't put into words how much
Henry Schmidt and
Thijs Terlouw means to this group! I'm forever grateful for their decisions to come to D&E!"
