The Men's Cross Country Program

Since becoming a varsity sport in 1956, the Elizabethtown College men's cross country team has been running for more than four decades. 

Coach Ira R. Herr guided the first five Blue Jay teams, posting an 18-21-1 career dual meet record.  Aided, according to legend, by a very large local police dog, he helped Elizabethtown runners achieve their first winning seasons, posting a 6-2 record in 1958 and a 7-3 mark in 1959. 

The groundwork laid by Herr translated into a string of highly-successful seasons under coach D. Kenneth Ober, who directed the Blue Jays to 35 dual meet victories between 1964 and 1967. The 1965 campaign was the best in College history before 1999, as the Blue Jays won 11 of 12 dual meets and captured Elizabethtown's first Middle Atlantic Conference championship in cross country. The 1965 team also competed at the NCAA College Division Championship, held in Chicago, IL, where the Blue Jays finished 26th out of 56 teams.

Ted Bond, who led the Blue Jays in the mid-'60s, earned All-MAC honors three times and was the MAC runner-up in 1966. He was named to Elizabethtown College's Ira R. Herr Hall of Fame in 1979.

Joe Torchia was a standout All-MAC runner in the early '70s and became the program's second Ira R. Herr Hall of Fame inductee in 2003. He also served as the team's head coach in 1982.

Head Coach Dale Luy, whose tenure ran from 1986 to 1997, led Elizabethtown to 53 dual meet victories in his first eight years. He guided the 1987 squad to an 11-3 record, tying a College record for wins in a season. 

Chris Straub took over the reins as head coach in 1998, and he quickly built the men's cross country team into one of the most dominant programs in the history of Elizabethtown College athletics.

In 1999, in Straub’s second season at the helm, the men’s cross country team won the Middle Atlantic Conference Championship. This ended a 34-year drought as the last Elizabethtown College team to win the MAC title was the 1965 squad. Since 1999, the Blue Jays have gone on to win every MAC men’s cross country championship. In 2005, the team broke the College record for most consecutive conference team titles won with seven. The original Elizabethtown College record was set by the men’s soccer teams that won six consecutive MAC titles from 1962 to 1967. Breaking the record did not come easily, as the unranked 2005 squad upset nationally-ranked Widener University by a single point at the MAC Championships to secure the victory and make school history. Most recently in 2006, the Blue Jays won their eighth straight MAC title.

In the 41 year program history prior to 1999, only five Etown men’s cross country runners had ever achieved All-MAC honors. Since 1999, an amazing 24 Etown men’s cross country runners have finished in the top 20 at the MAC Championships, thus garnering All-MAC honors. A grand total of 54 All-Conference performances have been achieved over the past eight years with the entire top seven (varsity cross country team) achieving the honor in ’99, ’01, ’02, ’04, and ’05 with the high water mark coming in ’04 when nine Etown harriers finished in the top 20 at the MAC Championships.

Dave Berdan ’04, Steve Sanko ’04, Dustin Scott ’03, Greg Wetzel ’05, and Mike Zwatty ’03 make up an elite enclave — the only Etown harriers to achieve All-MAC honors all four years. In 2001, Berdan became Elizabethtown’s first-ever individual conference champion in cross country. In 2002, Scott became Etown’s second consecutive MAC individual champion. Elizabethtown College harriers have also finished in the runner-up position on numerous occasions at the MAC Championships, including Larry Bullock ’00 in 1999, Berdan in 2000, Scott in 2001, Matt Rockwell ’05 in 2002, and Tyson Evensen ’07 in 2005.

For Elizabethtown College, the road to the national championships goes through the Mideast Regional meet. Two weeks after the MAC Championships, the Blue Jays gear up for the regional championships against the other 42 NCAA Division III colleges and universities from Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and West Virginia. At the 1999 Mideast Regional Championships, Elizabethtown appeared out of nowhere, improving from 24th place the previous year to second place, thus grabbing the last qualifying spot for the national championships. The one year turnaround from 24th in the region to 24th in the nation seemed almost unimaginable at the time and proved Etown was on the verge of becoming a known force on the national cross country scene.

Since 1999, Elizabethtown College has maintained its reputation as one the best in the region, having finished among the top six teams in each of the last eight years at the Mideast Regional Championships. The men’s team finished 24th (’98), second (’99), third (’00), second (’01), first (’02), third (’03), third (’04), fifth (’05) and sixth ('06) in each of the last eight years. The 2002 team won the Mideast Regional title for the first time in Elizabethtown history beating perennial national powerhouse Haverford College in the process. Scott became Etown’s first individual regional champion and Mideast Regional Runner of the Year. A total of 18 Etown men’s cross country runners have finished in the top 35 at the Mideast Regional Championships, thus garnering All-Mideast Regional honors. Only Steve Sanko ’05 and Greg Wetzel ’06 have achieved the honor all four years. Prior to 1999, Elizabethtown College never had a men’s cross country runner achieve All-Region honors.

The team has traveled to the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships as a unit four times in the last eight years, earning a team berth in 1999 (Oshkosh, WI), 2001 (Rock Island, IL), 2002 (Northfield, MN), and 2004 (Eau Claire, WI). In 1999, 2001, 2002, and 2004 the team finished 24th, 14th, 15th, and 15th in the nation, respectively. Since 1999, the Etown men have been represented every year at the national championships. Individuals who have qualified for the NCAA XC Championships include: Berdan in 2000 (Spokane, WA), Sanko in 2003 (Hanover, IN), the trio of Wetzel, Evensen and Jason Theobald ’07 in 2005 (Delaware, OH), and Patrick Donovan '07 in 2006 (Wilmington, OH). At the 2001 NCAA Championships, Scott became Elizabethtown’s first-ever cross country All-American with his 14th place finish out of the 215 runners in the field. In 2004, then-seniors Sanko and Jose Miranda '05 both earned All-America honors by virtue of their top 35 performance to become the second and third All-Americans for Etown’s men’s cross country program.

Elizabethtown College harriers take a lot of pride in their commitment to excellence—both over hill and dale and in the classroom. The 2002 men’s team earned possibly its greatest honor when it was announced that its fall semester team grade point average of 3.54 was the highest amongst all NCAA Division III men’s cross country teams in the United States.