NCAA DIII XC Championships: Favorites Rule In Louisville

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Anybody who went to the 2016 NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships expecting to see upsets went home disappointed.

All of the favorites — the No. 1 North Central (Ill.) men, the No. 1 Johns Hopkins women, Ian LaMere and Amy Regan — won and did so in resounding fashion.

QUICK LINKS: Men’s Results | Women’s Results

The women’s race went off first at E.P. “Tom” Sawyer Park and the Blue Jays asserted themselves early. Johns Hopkins led comfortably at the 3K split over No. 3 SUNY Geneseo (74-142) and opened it up even more by 4K (87-175). Everybody else was just running for second at that stage.

What’s even more impressive about the Blue Jays’ victory was that they didn’t have a runner in the top-20. Tess Meehan led the way in 25th and the rest of Johns Hopkins’ scoring lineup finished 29th, 31st, 57th and 62nd overall with a spread of 32.6 seconds.

The Blue Jays were joined on the podium by runner-up No. 5 Washington (Mo.), the Knights and 4th-ranked Williams.

Regan ran away with the individual title, like she had throughout the season leading up to NCAAs. The undefeated senior from Green Brook, New Jersey won by 15 seconds over Loras’ Audrey Miller. Regan also won the DIII XC individual crown in 2014.

Unlike Johns Hopkins women, the North Central (Ill.) men bided their time before they turned on the jets. That lasted all of 2K as the Cardinals soared past then-leader MIT at that split and led eventual runner-up No. 2 SUNY Geneseo by 65 points at 6K.

North Central (Ill.) had five All-Americans as senior Zach Plank showed the way. Plank finished 9th overall and the rest of the Cardinals flocked through in the next 12 seconds to give them a 144-point win (60-204).

Podium spots also belonged to No. 4 UW-Eau Claire and No. 5 Washington (Mo.).

When it came to the individual race, LaMere broke away from the pack around 2K and cruised to the finish line. LaMere ended up winning by 29 seconds over Widner’s Ernie Pitone. This was LaMere’s second consecutive NCAA XC individual title.