Trio of Tigers Earn Trip to Nationals

SALEM, Ore. (Nov. 15, 2008) – Three Tigers earned bids to compete at the NCAA Division III National Championships after Occidental’s men’s cross country team places fourth at the West Regional meet on Saturday hosted by Willamette University.

Each of the seven men who competed today posted life time personal best performances for an 8K race, but the Tigers fell just short of punching a ticket to Hanover, IN as a team after finishing a heart-breaking fourth (six points behind Willamette who was third and just 10 points behind SCIAC foe, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, who was second).

Eric Kleinsasser (25:08.47) was the top Oxy finisher, despite slipping and falling at the start line. Among SCIAC runners he was second, crossing the line just behind Florian Reynolds of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, whom he edged at both the SCIAC Multi-Duals and SCIAC Championships, where he was named Male Runner of the Year.

Senior Keith Blumenfeld finished ninth while Clay Hoadley was two men behind in 11th with times of 25:26.01 and 25:28.27, respectively. Blumenfeld shaved 20 seconds off his previous personal best and Hoadley crossed the line 45 second faster than he had ever run before.

The top seven individual finishers, who are not on a qualifying team, earn a trip to the finals, as these three did. Occidental is the only team in the entire nation to send three individuals to the meet after failing to qualify as a team.

In the fourth spot for the Tigers was David Martinez who ran an astonishing 41 seconds faster than his previous PR at 25:39.63. His 18th place finish was the highest fourth place finish of any team in the meet.

The final scoring runner of the meet for Oxy was Will Mosely who showed by far the best improvement of anyone on the team as he finished the 8K an astonishing 81 seconds faster than his next best time this year. He finished 52nd in a time of 26:47.10.

Fellow first year Sebi Devlin-Foltz and junior Noah Carson rounded out the field for the Tigers as the sixth and seventh men. Devlin-Foltz's 26:49.87 was a lifetime best by 28 seconds and Carson's 28:17.25 was a 4 second improvement on his best 8k.

The cross country season will conclude next Saturday, Nov. 22 at the National Championships in Hanover, IN.