The University of Chicago’s men’s and women’s cross-country teams performed admirably to close out the 2018 season at Saturday’s 2018 NCAA Division III cross-country championships at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. Both squads placed top 12, and two individual runners earned All-American honors. 

On the women’s team, second-year runner Sophie Elgamal earned All-American honors as she took 26th place with a 21:46.9 six-kilometer race, a time significantly faster than the 22:08.1 that she ran at the NCAA Midwest Regional just a week before. With the help of her fellow point-scorers—first-year Lucy Jeffs; second-years Emma Dyer and Abigail Shoemaker; and third-years Maggie Boudreau and Claire Brockway—women’s cross-country earned 353 points and took 11th of 32 teams, a three-spot improvement from their 2017 14th-place finish. women’s cross-country has qualified for the NCAA Division III championships for nine straight years. 

Meanwhile, second-year Ryan Cutter, of the men’s cross-country team, finished the eight-kilometer race in 24:51.4, placing 20th and earning All-American honors. Eight-kilometer runner Henry Myers placed 52nd in the same race, an astonishing showing from a first-year. Other scorers on the men’s team include first-year Sam Craig, second-year Chase Gardner, third-years Andrew Kates and Tim Koenning, and fourth-year Ansel Richards. The men’s team came 12th of 32 teams overall with a cumulative 390 points. Saturday’s meet was the men’s cross-country team’s first appearance at the NCAA Division III championships since 2015. 

Thus concludes a successful 2018 season for the men’s and women’s cross-country teams. Based on the strong performances on Saturday by the Maroon’s pair of second-year All-Americans, however, there seems to be much to look forward to in the seasons to come.