Results

Newville, Pa. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's cross country team placed second at the 2023 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III Championships Saturday at Big Spring High School.  

The Eagles finished with 159 team points while Pomona-Pitzer College (Calif.) captured the national title with 158. North Central College (Ill.) placed third with 169 points with Williams College (Mass.) fourth with 212. Wartburg College, Iowa finished fifth (232) followed by Carnegie Mellon University, Pa. (252), Rensselear Polytechnic Institute, N.Y. (274), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (274), Lynchburg University, Va. (286) and UW-Whitewater (301) to round-out the top-10. A total of 32 teams competed.

UWL's Ethan Gregg captured the NCAA Division III title with a time of 24:02.4 on the 8,000-meter course. He is the second runner in school history to win the national title, joining Brett Altergott in 1997. It is Gregg's third career NCAA III All-America accolade after finishing fourth in 2022 and 11th in 2021. Gregg placed 125th in 2019.  

The Eagles' Isaac Wegner also earned NCAA III All-America honors on Saturday, finishing 18th overall (24:45.6). It is his second honor after placing 12th in 2022. Wegner was 53rd in 2021.
 

Joe Sullivan finished 59th (25:22.9) on Saturday with Grant Matthai 63rd (25:25.4), Adam Loenser 64th (25:25.7), Aidan Matthai 76th (25:34.4) and Elias Ritzke 206th (26:21.2).  Grant Matthai placed 70th a year ago while Aidan Matthai was 171st and Ritzke 184th.

A total of 294 runners completed the course. 

UWL was making its 36th appearance in the NCAA Division III Championships, winning three NCAA Division III titles (1996, 2001, 2005).  The Eagles now have 28 top-six finishes in school history at the national meet, including 15 in the top-three.  UWL was also second in 2017 and finished third in 2013, 2014 and 2018.  The Eagles were fourth in 2012, sixth in 2016, seventh in 2019, eighth in 2022 and 10th in 2021.  The 2020 championships were canceled due to the COVID-19 public health threat. 

With Gregg's national title, UWL has 17 top-10 individual finishes in school history at the NCAA III Championships.  Altergott captured the national title in 1997 and was eighth in 1996.  Jim Bachelor placed second in 1986 and third in 1987 while Mike Junig was fourth in 1987. Other top-10 finishes include: Gregg (fourth) in 2022; Mahdi Omar (fourth) in 1993; Brad Wilson (seventh) in 1996 and 1997 (fourth); Dan Peso (sixth) in 1999; Tyler Foos (third) and Ross Substad (seventh) in 2001; Paul Zdroik (fifth) in 2007, Josh Schraeder in 2018 (fourth) and 2019 (fifth) and Tyler Nault in 2019 (eighth).