ELIZABETHTOWN COLLEGE MEN'S CROSS COUNTRY
Saturday, November 17, 2001

Etown Finishes 14th in Nation at NCAA Division III Championship Meet; Dustin Scott Becomes Program's First All-American

ROCK ISLAND, Ill. --- Elizabethtown finished 14th in the nation out of 24 teams at the NCAA Division III National Championship Meet, hosted by Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill., Saturday. Also, Etown junior Dustin Scott (Honey Brook, PA/Twin Valley) finished 14th in a field of 211 runners to become the program's first All-American.

Etown scored 332 points to finish 14th, the team's highest finish in the history of the program. Wisconsin-LaCrosse won the national championship with an 80 point showing. The race was very tight, with only 67 points separating the 11th place team (Bowdoin) and the 20th place team (MIT).

Scott was Etown's highest finisher with an overall time of 24:38 over the 8K course. His 14th place, All-American finish in 2001 was a drastic improvement from his finish in 1999, when he last ran in the national championship and placed 202nd.

Elizabethtown's next finisher was junior Dave Berdan (Dingmans Ferry, PA/Delaware Valley) in 47th place with a time of 25:13, a large improvement over his 92nd place finish at the 2000 championship meet, and a vast improvement over his 204th place showing in 1999.

Sophomore Josh Lyman (Parkside, PA/Sun Valley), who was not even in the team's top seven last year, finished in 98th place in 25:47 as Etown's number three runner.

Junior Mike Zwatty (Lewisberry, PA/Red Land) placed 143rd in 26:15, and first-year Steve Sanko (Hazleton, PA/Bishop Hafey) was right behind him in 144th place with a time of 26:16. For comparison, Zwatty finished 208th in the 1999 national meet.

First-year Matt Rockwell (Plymouth, NH/Plymouth Regional) finished in 198th place in 27:21, and classmate José Miranda (Harrisburg, PA/Susquehanna Township) finished with a time of 27:30 to place 203rd.

"This is like a dream come true," said head coach Chris Straub. "As a team we did everything we needed to do to reach our goal of finishing in the top 16," he continued. By having two teams from the Mideast Region finish in the top 16 (Haverford finished 12th), the region will earn three team berths in the national meet in 2002, rather than the two awarded this year.

Straub continued, "By finishing 14th, I think we surprised a lot of people." The Blue Jays were never ranked higher than 23rd in the nation at any point over the course of the season.

Over the course of three years, Elizabethtown's men's cross country team has gone from 24th in the nation in 1999, to not qualifying as a team for the national meet in 2000 while finishing third in the region, to 14th in the nation in 2001.

At Rock Island, Illinois.
NCAA Division III National Championship Meet
Hosted by Augustana College
Team Finishes:
1. Wisconsin-LaCrosse 80; 2. Calvin (MI) 140; 3. Nebraska Weslayan 193; 4. North Central (IL) 193; 5. St. Thomas (MN) 249; 6. Wisconsin-Oshkosh 252; 7. Willamette (OR); 8. College of New Jersey 271; 9. Ithaca (NY) 294; 10. Wartburg (IA) 308; 11. Bowdoin (ME) 313; 12. Haverford (PA) 316; 13. Claremont Mudd-Scripps (CA) 324; 14. Elizabethtown (PA) 332; 15. Keene State (NH) 344; 16. Williams (MA) 346; 17. Mount Union (OH) 364; 18. Wisconsin-Stevens Point 365; 19. Wisconsin-Platteville 374; 20. Massachusetts Institute of Technology 380; 21. Hamline (MN) 404; 22. Emory (GA) 446; 23. Tufts (MA) 518; 24. De Pauw (IN) 587

Elizabethtown Individual Finishers:
211 Runners-8K Course (Winning Pace: 24:16, J.B. Haglund, Haverford)
14. Dustin Scott, 24:38*
47. Dave Berdan, 25:13
98. Josh Lyman, 25:47
143. Mike Zwatty, 26:15
144. Steve Sanko, 26:16
198. Matt Rockwell, 27:21
203. José Miranda, 27:30
* Denotes All-American (top 35 finishers)