Men's Cross Country Take Seventh at SCAC Championship

SAN ANTONIO, Texas - The University of Dallas men's cross country season came to a close with the running of the SCAC Conference Championship this morning.  The Crusaders finished in seventh place with a final tally of 178 points.

Though the Crusaders were phenomenal in their last outing and have shown great progress this season, through injuries and other unforeseen circumstances they found themselves shorthanded coming into the conference finals, missing two of their top five runners.  "We could have easily finished higher in the standings if we were at full strength," said head coach Nick Schneigert.  "We lost so many points with Ethan being unavailable;even though we didn't have any PR's today, it was a tougher course, I'm really proud that everyone was competitive today."

Thomas Lagarde finished 30 seconds outside the top 20 with a final time of 27:39.124 for a 23rd place finish.  Martin Nelligan finished in 29th, still in the top half of the standings, with a final time of 29:05.742.

Despite limping across the finish line as a team, Schneigert is very optimistic about the outlook of the team: "We have made huge progress as a program in the time I've been here.  Thankfully, most of our guys will be running track and field, which will help them develop for next season.  If we can stay healthy and keep our roster at full numbers, we can easily be back in the top half of the standings next year.  With the recruits we have coming in and the youth of the current squad, I'm excited about our future."