TERRE HAUTE, Ind. --- The No. 30 Moravian University men's cross country squad placed 22nd of 32 teams at the 2024 NCAA Division III National Championships hosted by Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology on the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course at the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center Saturday. 

How It Happened

• The Greyhounds, who were competing at the national championships for the first time as a team after winning the Metro Regional title last weekend, scored 578 points for their 22nd place finish. The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse won the team title with 77 points while Wartburg (Iowa) College was second with 173 points
• Junior Bryan Kerchner led Moravian individually as he placed 99th of the 294 runners with a time of 25:12.4 on the 8,000-meter course
• Sophomore Gavin Hefferan finished in 124th in a time of 25:20.4 while senior Nathan Hajel took 161st in 25:32.8
• Graduate student Cole Stanchina placed 170th with a time of 25:35.9 while senior Owen Nahf rounded out the Moravian scorers in 205th in 25:48.6
• Graduate student Josh Mangini finished 214th with a time of 25:52.0 while graduate student Casey Frank took 270th 26:38.0 in his final collegiate race

Quotable from Director of Cross Country and Track & Field Jesse Baumann

• "We felt confident we could do better than our #30 ranking coming into the meet, we just had to put ourselves in a position by being in the top 75-150 in the race. It's difficult to make significant moves in a field like this, so we had to assert ourselves early on which the team did a great job. After the first 1k split we kept hovering around 20th place and the guys did a great job of fighting to keep that position over the final 4k. Only one of the seven has NCAA meet experience, it was the first time our program has ever been here, so to finish 22nd is incredible. More alums, athletes, parents, and staff than I can count contributed to our program getting to this point and it's such an incredible way to wrap up a memorable season. We could not possibly be more proud of how the team did all season and today."

Up Next for the Greyhounds

• Season Complete