UW-L Finishes Fifth at NCAA III Championships; Zdroik Places Fifth

For Immediate Release: Saturday, November 17, 2007

Northfield, Minn. – The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's cross country team placed fifth at the NCAA Division III Championships Saturday afternoon at the St. Olaf College Cross Country Trails in Northfield, Minnesota. The Eagles finished with 221 team points.

New York University won the national title with 128 points while Haverford College (Pa.) was second with 150. Cortland State, N.Y. placed third (158) followed by Calvin College, Mich. (214) and UW-La Crosse to round out the top-five. UW-Stevens Point finished sixth with 326 points while UW-Platteville was 11th with 402. A total of 32 teams took part in the national championships.

With the fifth-place team finish Saturday, UW-L has now earned 20 top-six finishes in school history at the NCAA III Championships. The Eagles won national crowns in 1996, 2001 and 2005.

Individually, the Eagles' Paul Zdroik earned NCAA III All-America honors Saturday as he placed fifth overall. He ran the 8,000-meter course in 24:44 for his first career All-America recognition.

UW-L's Dan Thour finished 71st overall (25:39) while Connor Lonning was 72nd (25:39), Paul Moran 73rd (25:40), Dallas Vincent 74th (25:40) and Kyle Coghlan 75th (25:41). The Eagles' Ben Herdeman placed 148th (26:04).

UW-Platteville's Tyler Sigl captured the individual title with a winning time of 24:24. A total of 280 runners participated in this year's NCAA III Championships.

For complete results, click here.