Two All-American runners lead the University of Southern Indiana men’s cross country team to a 13th-place finish at the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships Saturday on the Abbey Course in St. Leo, Florida.
Seniors Chase Broughton(Marengo, Indiana) and Noah Lutz (Evansville, Indiana) finished 27th and 35th, respectively, to lead the Screaming Eagles, who were ranked seventh in U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Top 25 going into the event.
Broughton completed the 10-kilometer course in 31 minutes, 2.30 seconds to earn All-America honors for the second time in his career. Lutz completed the race in 31:11.80, to earn his first career All-America honor.
The duo became the 21st and 22nd USI Men’s Cross Country runners to earn All-America awards, while bringing the number of total cross country All-America nods to 28.
Sophomore Darin Lawrence (Indianapolis, Indiana) captured a top-100 performance, placing 98th with a time of 32:15.20. Juniors Cain Parker (Petersburg, Indiana) and James Cecil (Owensboro, Kentucky) finished with times of 32:39.80 and 32:45.00, enough to earn 122nd and 129th-place finishes.
With junior Bastian Grau (Höchstadt, Germany) not finishing the race, freshman Nathan Hall(Springfield, Missouri) rounded out the USI runners with a 164th-place finish.
As a team, the Eagles completed the race with 347 points in their 13th-place finish. Just 17 points separated teams finishing 10th through 13th.
Adams State University took home the team crown with 54 points, while Grand Valley State University and Colorado Mines finished second and third, respectively. The 2015 runner-up, Vincent Kiprop of Missouri Southern State University won this year’s individual crown with a time of 29:07.40.
USI opens the Indoor Track & Field season in January.
