By Michael Newman

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Elsah, Ill. – All top-ranked North Central College had to do Saturday on the campus of Principia College was cross the “T’s” and dot the “I’s” on what would be a season where they were the No. 1 team in the nation from beginning to end in NCAA Division III.

The weather, which was cluttered with high winds and intermittent rain, would not stop the Cardinals. Not that they would notice.

“Weather goes with cross country,” North Central College Coach Al Carius said. “Cross country is not about speed. Cross country is about mental and physical strength. I believe if you are well prepared, the tougher the weather conditions mean the teams that prepared themselves for it will have the advantage. The weather did not bother me at all. It was an advantage for us.”

The team was in the middle of the starting line bursting to the front in the first upward 200 meters of the race. The Cardinals controlled the race from there placing three runners in the top nine to win their 18th national championship with only 57 points.

“This is our course,” Dhruvil Patel said afterwards. “This was the third time that we have been on it this year. We were confident on it.”

It did help that North Central had Patel and Jared Borowsky in the front leading them throughout the race. Borowsky ended up finishing second, Patel third starting the North Central avalanche across the line.

“It is amazing especially with Dhruvil right next to me,” Borowsky said. “It makes it that much easier having a teammate right by your side.”

The pack behind Patel and Borowsky was evident throughout as they had their other five runners in the top 30 through the first 3,000 meters of the race. The team's grip on the title grew stronger from there. 

North Central had two other runners in the top 20. Al Baldonado moved into the top ten in the final straight away finishing eighth overall. Matt Norvell also earned All-American honors with Borowsky, Patel, and Baldonado as he finished 17th. Dan O’Keefe was the team’s fifth runner finishing 45th followed by teammates Argeni Bailon (60th) and Zach Hird (86th). All but O’Keefe and Bailon return next year.

“I am looking forward to enjoying today,” Carius added. “I am looking forward to congratulating them all and then looking forward to the steps for next year.

“We took the steps we needed to the entire year and this was another step along the way. We had to tap into each other’s strengths mentally, physically, and into the deepest part of yourself which was the spirit. Combine that with the thing that holds it together which was is the team concept.”

Wisconsin-Eau Claire’s Darin Lau said before Saturday’s race that he was going to push the pace regardless of the weather.

That he did as winds gusted close to 35 mph from the north at times during the race. Lau, who won the Midwest Regional race the week before and finished sixth overall in last year’s race in Louisville. Lau built up a 10- to 15-second lead on the second loop of the course and held that advantage the rest of the way. He crossed the line in 24:03.6 for the 8-kilometer course with Borowsky and Patel nine seconds back.

Wisconsin-LaCrosse finished second (196 points) ahead of Christopher Newport VA (221 points) and Amherst NY with 251 points. Four of the top seven men’s teams were from the Midwest Regional.

John Hopkins’ women’s cross country team was in the same position as the North Central team as the top-ranked team in the nation. The Blue Jays repeated their 2016 title and their fifth national title since 2012 scoring 96 points led by the third-place finish from Ellie Clawson. Khia Kurtenbach from the University of Chicago pulled away in the final kilometers of the 6-kilometer race winning her first individual national title (20:39.2) by six seconds ahead of Bryn McKillop from Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.

Wisconsin-Eau Claire finished second overall (191 points) followed by Washington University (MO) with 202 points and Massachusetts Institute of Technology with 210 points.

Results | North Central College Team Interview