ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. --- The Elizabethtown College men's cross country team earned one of 16 at-large bids to the 2009 NCAA Division III Championships, which will be held on Saturday at the Highland Hills Golf Course in Highland Hills, Ohio.
The Blue Jays were selected to the 32-team field after finishing fifth at the Mideast Regional championships on Saturday. It is the sixth time in program history that Elizabethtown will compete as a team at nationals, having previously competed in 1965, 1999, 2001, 2002 and 2004.
In addition, senior Megan VanDenHengel has received one of seven individual berths from the Mideast Region for the women's championship. She finished eighth at the regional meet, with the seven runners in front of her provisionally claiming the at-large bids. However, when Haverford College received an at-large team selection it removed second-place finisher Emily Lipman from the individual pool, allowing VanDenHengel to move into the final at-large slot.
The Elizabethtown men have finished in the top 15 three times in five previous trips to the NCAA championships, placing 15th in 2002 and 2004 and in 14th place in 2001. In addition, the Blue Jays had individual entries at nationals in 1966, 2000, 2003, 2005 and 2006.
Sophomore Eric Reichert was Elizabethtown's top finisher at this year's Mideast Regional championships, finishing fourth overall to match Steve Sanko (2003) for the fourth-best regional finish in program history. He will attempt to finish in the top 35 at nationals and join Dustin Scott (14th in 2001), Sanko (27th in 2004) and Jose Miranda (31st in 2004) as program All-Americans.
VanDenHengel will be making her second trip to nationals, having been part of the 2007 squad that qualified as a team for the NCAA championships and posted the program's best-ever finish by tying for 23rd place out of 32 teams. VanDenHengel was the third Blue Jay to cross the finish line in that race, behind All-American Erin Fisher (whose 15th-place finish is the best ever by an Elizabethtown women's runner at nationals) and Tiffany Kulp (87th place, in her third of four trips to nationals).
NCAA Men's Cross Country Championships
Automatic Qualifiers
Allegheny College
Amherst College
Calvin College
Carnegie Mellon University
Claremont -Mudd-Scripps College
Emory University
Heidelberg College
Lynchburg College
Nebraska Wesleyan University
North Central College
University of St. Thomas (Minnesota)
SUNY Cortland
SUNY Geneseo
Willamette University
Williams College
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
At-large qualifiers
Brandeis University
Colorado College
Dickinson College
ELIZABETHTOWN COLLEGE
Hamline University
Haverford College
Keene State College
Manchester College
Mount Union College
New York University
Rochester Inst. of Technology
St. Lawrence University
St. Olaf College
Washington U. in St. Louis
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
University of Wisconsin-Platteville