The Aurora University men's cross country team took on the field at the 2014 Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Championships, hosted by AU at Oakhurst Forest Preserve in Aurora, Illinois on Saturday morning.
AU came in looking to extend their hold on the NACC, having won the previous two NACC Championships. Pre-race favorites, AU and MSOE battled throughout the 8k course. At the 3 mile mark, the teams were neck and neck with AU sophomore
Matt Meyers running in second.
Meyers would go on to finish second overall in the meet with a time of 25:54.8 and earned NACC All-Conference honors. Joining Meyers as scoring Spartans and receiving NACC All-Conference honors included sophomore
Jimmy Baeskens (fourth - 26:03.0), junior
Calvin Robinson (eighth - 26:21.9) and freshman
TJ Pitcock (13th - 26:30.8). The fifth Spartan to score and missing out on All-Conference honors by one place was senior
Nick Cole (16th - 26:47.7). Following Cole were
Alex Duncan (17th - 26:50.6) and
Luke Miller (18th - 26:55.3).
When the final results came in, AU finished second as a team with 41 points to the 30 points scored by MSOE.
Also competing in the NACC Championships were
Nick Shaw (20th - 26:59.4),
Brandon Miller (23rd - 27:05.8),
Ryan Fromm (26th - 27:11.2),
Nick Quiroz (35th - 27:45.9),
Ricky Perkins (38th - 27:49.3),
Anthony Barrios (39th - 27:54.1),
Matt Swanson (45th - 28:03.9),
D.J. Wolfram (47th - 28:06.8),
Dan Morgan (48th - 28:18.8),
Roberto Gonzalez (49th - 28:20.6),
Bruce McCaffrey (53rd - 28:58.1),
Luis Salgado (55th - 29:02.2),
Aaron Lehman (61st - 29:21.7),
Kun Deng (69th - 29:56.0),
Dylan Schatz (75th - 30:33.7),
Cody McDougall (76th - 30:39.1),
Ben Ervin (77th - 30:42.0),
Doug Belling (82nd - 30:49.0),
Josh Sopczak (87th - 31:11.8),
John Reyes (90th - 31:51.7) and
Dalton Hargrave (106th - 37:15.9).
Next action for the Spartan cross country team comes on
Saturday, November 15 when they compete in the 2014 NCAA Division III regional meet. Meet time is set for 11:00 a.m. in Winneconne, Wisconsin at Lake Breeze Golf Course.
