NCAA Division III Men's Championships Results
Hanover, Ind. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's cross country team placed third at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III Championships Saturday afternoon at the L.S. Ayres Athletic Complex on the campus of Hanover College. The Eagles finished with 155 team points to record their 11th top-three finish in school history and first since 2005 when they captured their third national title (1996, 2001, 2005). UW-L placed fourth last season.
St. Olaf College (Minn.) won this year's national title with 84 points while North Central College (Ill.) was second with 86 and UW-L third with 155. Washington University (Mo.) finished fourth with 167 points while Williams College (Mass.) was fifth with 218.
Central College, Iowa placed sixth (240 points) followed by Middlebury College, Vt. (297), Dickinson College, Pa. (298), UW-Eau Claire (305) and Haverford College, Pa. (351) to round-out the top-10. A total of 32 teams competed.
Andrew Rohlman was UW-L's top finisher Saturday, placing 36th overall with a time of 25:26.0 on the 8,000-meter course. The Eagles'
Jacob Peterson was 40th (25:29.0) while
Nate Routhier finished 45th (25:30.8) and
Josh Dedering placed 49th (25:32.9).
UW-L's
Alex Ciesielski finished 52nd (25:33.3) while
Tom Linner was 79th (25:47.8) and
Garrett Kerska placed 163rd (26:20.9).
Michael LeDuc of Connecticut College won the individual national title (24:29.3). A total of 275 runners competed.
The top-35 finishers earned NCAA Division III All-America honors.
It was the third career appearance at the NCAA Division III Championships for Dedering, Peterson and Routhier. Dedering earned All-America honors last year with a 30th-place finish. He was 182nd in 2011. Peterson finished 141st in 2011 and 70th in 2012 while Routhier was 59th in 2011 and 42nd last season.
Kerska and Linner competed in their second national meet after Kerska finished 98th and Linner tied for 111th last year.
Rohlman and Ciesielski were making their first career appearance at the national championships.
