UW-Eau Claire Captures First NCAA Division III Men's Cross Country Title

Ian LaMere from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville won the individual crown and the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire won the team title at the 2015 NCAA Division III Men’s Cross Country Championship hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh on Saturday (Nov. 21) at the Lake Breeze Golf Club in Winneconne, Wis.

LaMere, a junior, opened up a large early lead and finished the 8,000-meter course in 23:36, outpacing the second-place finisher Josh Thorson from UW-Eau Claire’s time of 24:15 by 39 seconds.

Wisconsin-Eau Claire claimed its first men’s title in program history by scoring 135 points. The Blugolds placed two runners in the top nine and four in the top 30.

Williams College (Mass.) was the runner-up with 144 points, followed by State University of New York at Geneseo in third place with 209 points, St. Olaf College (Minn.) in fourth with 211 and defending national champion North Central College (Ill.) in fifth with 254.

Rounding out the top 10 men’s teams at the 43rd version of the race were sixth-place Pomona-Pitzer Colleges (Calif.) with 276 points, seventh-place Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges (Calif.) with 290, eighth-place Wabash College (Ind.) with 292, ninth-place University of Wisconsin-La Crosse with 300 and 10th-place Amherst College (Mass.) with 303.

Finishing in third place individually was Bijan Mazaheri from Williams College with a time of 24:22, followed by fourth-place Zach Plank from North Central College in 24:27 and fifth-place Jake Campbell from St. Olaf College in 24:32.

Completing the top 10 individuals were St. Olaf College’s Paul Escher in sixth place (24:33), Carleton (Minn.) College’s Hart Horner in seventh (24:34), State University of New York at Geneseo’s Isaac Garcia-Cassan in eighth (24:35), Bethel (Minn.) University’s Matt Berens in ninth (24:35), and St. Lawrence (N.Y.) University’s Joseph Smith in 10th (24:35).