Pioneer Men Place 6th of 23 at NCAA Regional. Ballew and Montgomery Qualify as Individuals.

The Pioneer cross country men came up just short as a team today in the race for an NCAA team spot for next week's NCAA Championships in Mason, OH. Finishing 6th, the men needed to be in the top 5 for consideration. They did improve their finish of 2005 by 4 spots. Drake Ballew ('08, left) and David Montgomery ('10) both made the NCAA field with their performances. Ballew finished 3rd with a time of 25:46. He was just 9 seconds behind the winner, Chris Dunker of Nebraska Wesleyan. David Montgomery continued his seasonal improvement with a 15th-place finish (26:05). It was enought to give him one of the coveted 7 individual slots for next week's NCAA meet. Another highlight was the 35th-place 26:44 performance of Henry Reich ('09). All three runners earned All-Region honors by virtue of their top 35 performances. Completing the team performance for the Pioneers were Nick Sparr ('09) in 65th, Charles Knuth ('08) in 72nd, Paul Bellora ('10) in 77th and Sam Calisch ('10) in 86th.

Coach Will Freeman on the meet:
"It was a strong day for the team. We came up just short, but we also know this is a young team with a great future. All of the guys are inspired and excited about next year." We lose none of our top 9 runners to graduation."

"Drake and David ran exceptionally well today and I am very pleased to see that they will make it to Nationals next week. They both deserve it."

Click Here for Complete Team Scoring from NCAA Regionals
Click Here for Complete Individual Results from NCAA Regionals
Click here for NCAA Men's and Women's Regional Meet Photos