ELIZABETHTOWN COLLEGE MEN'S CROSS COUNTRY
Saturday, November 12, 2005

View pictures of the meet here.

Etown Places Fifth at Mideast Regionals; Three Blue Jays Earn NCAA Division III Championship Berths

CARLISLE, Pa. --- Elizabethtown College finished fifth out of 40 scoring teams with 154 points at the NCAA Mideast Regional Championships, hosted by Dickinson College at Carlisle High School, Saturday. Although the Blue Jays did not qualify as a team for the NCAA Division III Championship meet, because only the top three finishing teams in the region qualify, Elizabethtown will be sending runners to the NCAA Championships for the seventh year in a row. Three Blue Jay runners qualified as individuals to go on to the national championships, the most in the history of the program.

The three Blue Jays who qualified for the national championship meet by finishing among the top nine runners not from the three qualifying teams were Tyson Evensen (West Sand Lake, NY/Averill Park), junior Jason Theobald (Honesdale, PA/Honesdale) and senior Greg Wetzel (Warrington, PA/Central Bucks East). The three also earned All-Mideast Region honors by placing in the top 35 in the race of 279 finishers. Evensen placed 14th overall in 26:27 on the 8k course, Theobald finished 19th overall in 26:34, and Wetzel came in 21st overall in 26:37.

Also finishing among Etown’s top five were sophomore Ryan Mulcahy (Towanda, PA/Towanda), who placed 46th overall in 27:19, and sophomore Ryan St. Clair (Chambersburg, PA/Chambersburg), who finished 54th overall in 27:27. Etown’s spread of 59.9 seconds between its number one and number five runners was the fifth-tightest spread out of the 40 scoring teams in the race.

Etown’s other two finishers were 67th-place first-year student Brandon Bear (York, PA/Eastern York) (27:41) and 70th-place finishing junior David Cohen (Allentown, PA/William Allen) (27:45). Teams are only permitted to field seven runners in the Regionals.

Over the past seven years, Etown has qualified for the NCAA Championships as a team in 1999, 2001, 2002 and 2004. The Blue Jays have had individuals qualify in 2000, 2003 and 2005. In 2000 and in 2003, only one Etown runner qualified for the nationals. This year’s total of three individual qualifiers is without precedent in Etown history, and the three qualifiers from Etown constitute one third of the individual runners from the Mideast Region to advance to the national championships.

The three teams that qualified for the national championships from the Mideast Region this were meet-winner Haverford College (36 points), runner-up Carnegie Mellon University (80 points) and third-place finisher Allegheny College (116 points). The 2005 individual champion of the Mideast Region was Widener University junior Macharia Yout (25:15).

The 2005 NCAA Division III national championship meet will be held Saturday, November 19 and is hosted by Ohio Wesleyan University. The men’s race will begin at noon.

At Carlisle, Pa.
2005 Mideast Regional Championships (8k course)
Top 20 Team Scores (40 scoring teams, 43 total teams): 1. Haverford# 36; 2. Carnegie Mellon# 80; 3. Allegheny# 116; 4. Widener 130; 5. Elizabethtown 154; 6. Dickinson 253; 7. Swarthmore 286; 8. Muhlenberg 300; 9. Scranton 315; 10. Juniata 345; 11. Frostburg State 359; 12. Susquehanna 376; 13. Johns Hopkins 382; 15. Salisbury 399; 16. DeSales 404; 17. Grove City 432; 18. Messiah 548; 19. Misericordia 595; 20. Penn State-Behrend 599.
# NCAA Division III Championship team qualifier
Etown individual finishers (279 finishers): 14. Tyson Evensen^* 26:27; 19. Jason Theobald 26:34^*; 21. Greg Wetzel^* 26:37; 46. Ryan Mulcahy 27:19; 54. Ryan St. Clair 27:27; 67. Brandon Bear 27:41; 70. David Cohen 27:45.
^ NCAA Division III Championship individual qualifier
* All-Mideast Region team member