ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. --- The Elizabethtown College men's cross country team is ranked 20th in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Division III national coaches' poll, according to the season's first survey released Wednesday by the USTFCCCA.
The Blue Jays , who finished 28th at the NCAA Division III championships, are fourth among Mideast Region teams behind Allegheny College (third), Haverford College (fourth) and Carnegie Mellon University (11th). Elizabethtown is the only Middle Atlantic Conference team to receive votes in the poll.
Six of the seven runners who competed for the Blue Jays at the 2009 NCAA championships are back in the lineup this season, led by
Eric Reichert who earned All-America status with a 23rd-place finish. Reichert also finished fourth at the Mideast Region meet and took second at the MAC championships, while
Evan DeArmitt was honored as All-Region with a 23rd-place finish and All-MAC by placing eighth.
Other All-MAC runners back for the Blue Jays include
Colby Miller (fourth),
Russell Speiden (11th),
Chris Heisey (13th) and
Charlie Larsen (14th), with the latter three claiming second-team honors.
Washington (Mo.) University took the top spot in the USTFCCCA poll with 271 points and four first-placfe votes, followed by defending champion North Central (Ill.) College (267 points, three firsts), Allegheny (260 points, one first), Haverford (255 points) and New York University (249 points). The complete poll can be accessed on the USTFCCCA web site
here.
Elizabethtown begins pursuit of its 11th MAC championship Saturday morning at the Delaware Valley College Invitational, site of the conference meet on October 30.