CEDARVILLE, OH – The University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) men's cross country team earned 13th place in Saturday's NCAA Division II Midwest Regional.
 
UIS improved its team finish from last year's regional by seven placings. The Prairie Stars compiled a team score of 433. UIS held 17th two miles into the race and improved by four placings before the finish.
 
"It was a great team effort," UIS coach Mike De Witt said. "We were patient early and moved up steadily throughout the race."
 
Prior to the season, the Prairie Stars were targeting a 15th-place at regionals.
 
"We beat our summer goal by two places. It was a good finish to an improving season."
 
Eli Cook charged to 55th with a 10K time of 33 minutes, 9.8 seconds. Tyler Pasley (33:35.3) took 81st, Brendan Kroeger (34:00.6) claimed 99th, Elliot Nabatov (34:02.5) finished 100th, Garrad Straube (34:07.5) captured 108th, Kenton Wilson (34:25.5) put together a 128th-place finish and Tyler Hiserote (35:03.6) placed 153rd.
 
Grand Valley State University, which is ranked No. 2 in the latest United States Track & Field Cross Country Coaches Association NCAA Division II poll, took first with a team score of 58. The eighth-ranked University of Southern Indiana (72) came in second, finishing ahead of No. 11 Lewis University (107), No. 19 Walsh University (117), Bellarmine University (123), Saginaw Valley University (140), Malone University (205), Cedarville University (231), Michigan Tech University (294) and Hillsdale College (314), which rounds out the top 10 teams in the 28-team field. Bellarmine and Malone are receiving votes in the latest national poll.
 
Grand Valley State, Southern Indiana and Lewis each received an automatic bid to the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championship, which is awarded to the top three teams in each regional. Eight at-large teams will also receive a bid to the national meet. The national meet will be held on Nov. 18 at Evansville, IN.
 
Tiffin University's James Ngandu crossed the finish line first, racing to a 10K time of 30:11.8.
 
Once the 32 team qualifiers have been selected, the top four remaining individuals in each regional will advance to the national meet. There will also be two at-large individual qualifiers, which can be selected from any region.
 
Straube and Cook closed out their UIS cross country careers. Cook transferred to UIS in 2015, when the cross country program was established, and Straube transferred to UIS one year later.
 
The Prairie Stars are expected to return 15 runners next season and aim to build upon their success from this season.