LANSING, Mich. - The Kalamazoo College men's cross country team took part in the NCAA DIII Pre-Nationals meet on Saturday morning (Oct. 1) at the Forest Akers Golf Course. The Hornets finished 32nd with 980 points.
In a field of all NCAA DIII opponents, the top five teams in the race were MIT (62 points), North Central (98 points), Wisconsin-La Crosse (108 points), Wisconsin-Whitewater (147 points), and George Fox (187 points). Among the MIAA teams at the meet, Kalamazoo battled with Adrian, Hope, and Olivet throughout the race as teams three through seven in the conference. Calvin and Trine led the MIAA teams, with Alma and Albion finishing behind the Hornets.
Leading Kalamazoo was a trio of newcomers in Will Thomas, Noah Eckenroth, and Kyle Ackerson. Thomas finished in 160th at 27:34, Eckenroth came in 169th at 27:43, and Ackerson finished in 203rd at 28:50. All three also crushed their season-best times in the process, with Thomas improving his time by 15 seconds, Eckenroth by 39 seconds, and Ackerson by 51 seconds.
The other two Hornets that scored as the fourth and fifth runners were Garrick Hohm and Patrick Dunfee. Hohm beat his season-best time by four seconds at 29:36, while Dunfee shattered his career-best time by 36 seconds at 29:46.
Also running for Kalamazoo were Caleb Ewald and Keegan Reynolds. Another newcomer this season, Ewald had his fastest time by over a minute at 30:30, with Reynolds finishing at 31:07 as a personal-best time by 43 seconds.
"We raced incredibly confident in a deep field," said Head Coach Kyle Morrison. "We put ourselves in a great position to finish in the top half of the MIAA in a month at the conference meet."
Kalamazoo will be back in action at the Augustana College Invite on Saturday (Oct. 15), beginning at 12:15 p.m. in Rock Island, Ill.