MIAC CHAMPIONSHIPS RECAP

2024 miac Runners up

A week or so removed from our runner-up finish at the conference meet, we are feeling very good about our performance while also holding strong in our belief that our best team race is still ahead of us. We finished 2nd at MIAC with 96 points, just ahead of Macalester (104 points) and Carleton (106 points).

Not that we pay too much attention to the regional rankings throughout the season, but all season long we were getting no love in the rankings. After beating Macalester at the Augustana meet in mid-October, I thought we’d definitely be added to the rankings as the second MIAC team, but Carleton ended up being ranked ahead of us heading into the conference meet. I was surprised, but honestly didn’t mind as it put a chip on our shoulder and gave us something to prove. We were confident we were the better team.

At the MIAC meet, Augsburg’s Mohammed Bati (the now three-time MIAC Cross Country Champion) took the race out at an honest pace, which I loved as I knew our guys were prepared to run a smart race. Our top five still ended up getting out in about 5:02-5:10 for the first mile, which was plenty fast. Then we got to work. As a team we were in 3rd place all the way through the 4 mile mark of the race, with Macalester in 2nd. Only being four points down to Macalester at that 4 mile mark, I was standing on the course with about 1,000 meters to go and made sure our guys knew that. Our top five ended up collectively passing six people in that last mile, and secured the runner-up finish.

We were led by sophomore Vincent Kaluza in 14th, earning All-MIAC honors, followed by a trio of All-MIAC Honorable Mention honorees in senior Eamon Cavanaugh in 17th, sophomore Cole Stencel in 19th and junior Aiden Chalmers in 23rd, with junior Nick St. Peter rounding out our top five in 30th. Junior Jacob Malecha and senior Joe Gathje were close behind as our sixth and seventh men in 33rd and 40th, respectively, as well.

25:38 Vincent Kaluza (14th)
25:44 Eamon Cavanaugh (17th)
25:52 Cole Stencel (19th)
25:58 Aiden Chalmers (23rd)
26:11 Nick St. Peter (30th)
26:15 Jacob Malecha (33rd)
26:35 Joe Gathje (40th)

It was our sixth time finishing in the top two as a team at the MIAC meet since 2000. Champions in 2006 and 2007, and Runners-up in 2015, 2016, 2022 and now 2024. And we’re not done yet! As I said above, we are very excited for the Region meet this weekend.

Results and photos from the MIAC meet are below, as well as a Region meet preview and Fall Finale recap. Full MIAC results here: Men's 8k - MIAC Championships - Nov 2, 2024 | Fast Finish Results

FALL FINALE RECAP

We held our annual Fall Finale on campus last Friday evening for our non-regional guys to get one more race in for the season. It was a very small meet as Gustavus had to pull out at the last minute due to rampant sickness going through their team. This meant it was essentially just us plus an unattached athlete and one athlete from South Dakota State.

We were led by seniors Liam Sheeley, who is finally having the season we knew he was capable of after years of struggling with injuries, Ethan Leonard and AJ Skinner. Freshman Adam Marable and sophomore Peyton Martinek rounded out our top five for the clean sweep in this very competitive team race…

NCAA NORTH REGIONAL PREVIEW

Ever since the NCAA regions were re-aligned a few years ago putting us with the WIAC schools, we tell ourselves that if we aren’t able to run at the National meet then we were able to run in the 2nd most competitive meet in the country. Our region typically has the most team qualifiers for the National meet each year, and I’m expecting that to be the case this year as well.

We come into the meet ranked #10 in the region, with the following schools ranked nationally heading into the meet: UW-La Crosse at #1, UW-Whitewater #6, St. Olaf #9, UW-Eau Claire #22 and Carthage #30. UW-Stevens Point, Milwaukee School of Engineering and UW-Stout have also been ranked in the top 30 in the nation at different points throughout this season as well.

Our lineup for the Region meet will be as follows:

Eamon Cavanaugh, Sr.
Aiden Chalmers, Jr.
Joe Gathje, Sr.
Vincent Kaluza, So.
Jacob Malecha, Jr.
Nick St. Peter, Jr.
Cole Stencel, So.

Liam Sheeley, Sr. (alternate)
Max McCoy, So. (alternate)
Collin Berg, Fr. (alternate)

Carleton College is hosting the meet and the gun will go off for the men’s race at 12:00 PM. Women’s race is at 11:00 AM. Would love to see you there! There will not be a livestream of the meet, but you can follow the live results here: NCAA DIII North Regional Championships - Nov 16, 2024 | Fast Finish Results