UW-La Crosse Claims Fourth Straight Midwest Regional Title

UW-La Crosse owned five of the top 23 runners and finished first in the team standings at the NCAA Division III Men's Cross Country Midwest Regional held Saturday (Nov. 10) at the Lake Breeze Golf Club in Winneconne, Wis.

UW-La Crosse, ranked third in the nation by the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association, scored 70 points to capture its fourth straight Midwest Regional title. Ninth-ranked UW-Stevens Point finished second among the 35 teams with 76 points.

Leading UW-La Crosse to its victory was Paul Zdroik, who finished third in the 8,000-meter race with a time of 24:17. The Eagles also had Paul Moran finish 11th in 24:43, Dallas Vincent 14th in 24:46, Connor Lonning 19th in 24:54 and Dan Thour 23rd in 24:58.

UW-La Crosse and UW-Stevens Point both qualified for the NCAA Division III Championship that will be held Nov. 17 in Northfield, Minn.

Hoping to receive one of the 16 at-large invitations to the 32-team NCAA Division III Championship from the Midwest Regional are seventh-ranked North Central College (Ill.), 17th-ranked Augustana College (Ill.) and 10th-ranked UW-Platteville. North Central College placed third at the Midwest Regional with 118 points, while Augustana College was fourth with 152 and UW-Platteville fifth with 178.

The complete list of team and individual qualifiers for the NCAA Division III Championship will be announced by the NCAA on Sunday (Nov. 11).

Rounding out the top 10 teams at the Midwest Regional were sixth-place Wheaton College (Ill.) with 178 points, seventh-place Washington University (Mo.) with 227, eighth-place Carthage College with 276, ninth-place UW-Whitewater with 280 and 10th-place UW-Oshkosh with 309. UW-Oshkosh was the Midwest Regional team champion in both 2002 and 2003.

Tyler Sigl of UW-Platteville ran to a time of 24:01 to win the individual title for the third straight year. Brandon Mull of Wheaton College finished second in 24:11, Brian Butzler of UW-Whitewater fourth in 24:20 and Cory Towle of UW-Stevens Point fifth in 24:22.

Also finishing in the top 10 were sixth-place Jeff Pentek of St. Norbert College in 24:29, seventh-place Ryan McCarl of the University of Chicago (Ill.) in 24:32, eighth-place Micah Lorenzen of Concordia University Wisconsin in 24:37, ninth-place Dom Meyer of UW-Stevens Point in 24:38 and 10th-place Michael Spain of North Central College in 24:41.

A total of 258 runners finished the race.