Pac-12 Championships
LOUISVILLE, Colo. -- Top-ranked Colorado soundly defeated the rest of the field by recording 28 points to win its third consecutive Pac-12 Conference title on Saturday afternoon at Coal Creek Golf Course.
This is the 13th time in the 45 year history of the Pac-12 Championships that a team has recorded less than 30 points and CU’s total of 28 is tied for the eighth-best point total in Pac-12 history.
The Buffs score was almost half of the total score from No. 4 Oregon, which was 54. No. 13 Stanford was third with 79 points in the team race and Arizona State took fourth with 140 points.
Big Sky Championships
BOZEMAN, Mont. -- Northern Arizona finished first at the Big Sky Championships on Saturday.
The win marks the seventh consecutive Big Sky title dating back to 2007. Junior Matt McElroy led the way for NAU in the 8K on the way to an individual Big Sky championship. McElroy is the seventh consecutive individual winner to come from NAU.
The Lumberjacks win came in convincing fashion; reminiscent of last year's conference meet NAU swept the one, two and three spots. Matt McElroy took first place, 2012 Big Sky Champion Brian Shrader finished second and Nathan Weitz finished third. Newcomer Josh Hardin also finished in the top-10 with a seventh place finish garnering an All-Big Sky classification.
Big 12 Championships
WACO, Texas -- Oklahoma State won its sixth-consecutive Big 12 Championship, powered by top-five performances from Kirubel Erassa, Shadrack Kipchirchir and Tom Farrell on Saturday.
Erassa (2nd), Kipchirchir (3rd) and Farrell (5th) started fast, creating a small lead group in the first kilometer of the 8k race, and never looked back. Brian Gohlke (11th) and Shane Moskowitz (12th) rounded out the Cowboys' impressive team score of 33, which created a 44-point winning margin over second-place Iowa State.
WCC Champs
MALIBU, Calif. -- Senior Jason Witt used a late surge to take first overall on Saturday and lead a dominating team performance, giving No. 5 BYU its second West Coast Conference Championship in three years.
Witt held the lead for much of the race, but was passed by San Francisco’s Eric Causey and Portland’s Scott Fauble on the final lap. Fauble opened up a sizeable lead, but Witt’s late sprint to finish came just in time to take the lead and the victory.
The Cougars finished with 30 points. No. 6 Portland finished with 48 points to come in second place and Loyola Marymount had 110 to finish third.
Steve Flint, Tylor Thatcher and Thomas Gruenewald finished in fifth, sixth, and seventh place, respectively, and as the second through fourth team finishers for the Cougars. Spencer Gardner was the last scoring runner for BYU, placing 11th overall.
Big Ten Championships
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Malachy Schrobilgen ran Badger Tough on Sunday, just as his head coach demands. Unfortunately for Wisconsin, it wasn't enough to make a little more history.
The redshirt freshman captured the individual title at the 2013 Big Ten Championship in 24:16.9 seconds, but No. 7-ranked Wisconsin finished third overall with a team score of 71 points.
That halted the Badgers' streak of 14 consecutive Big Ten titles that began in 1999 and was the longest run in conference history. The win instead went to Indiana. Michigan earned second and Wisconsin came in at third.
MAAC Championships
RIVERDALE, N.Y. -- Iona earned its 23rd consecutive Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title on Friday afternoon at Van Cortlandt Park. The Gaels swept the title with a perfect score of 15 as the first six runners to cross the line wore Maroon & Gold. The win extended NCAA Division I's longest active conference championship streak.
Iona's top four - rookie Kieran Clements, seniors Daniel Clorley and Matthew Gillespie and junior Jake Byrne - all crossed the line within one second of each other. Clements came in at 25:27.94, while Byrne in fourth crossed at 25:28.71. Sophomore Mike O'Dowd was fifth (25:36.85) while junior Andrew Kowalsky came in less than a second later (25:37.63). The Gaels also had top performances out of senior Chris Stogsdill (11th), junior Quinn Raseman (14th) and senior Jimmy Tarsnane (19th).
Clements became the 12th Gael in a row to win the individual title and 18th all-time. It was the Gaels seventh perfect 15 during their current stretch of 23 championships. The Maroon & Gold swept the top five positions in 1992, 1995, 2000, 2004, 2008, and 2011.
Iona was 58 points in front of runner up Canisius, the only other team to score under 100 points in the meet.
MW Championships
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- The ninth-ranked Lobos raced to their fifth Mountain West title on Friday at the Air Force Academy.
New Mexico totaled 32 points in the team competition, followed by Boise State with 51 and Air Force with 80.
The Lobos placed four runners in the top 10, led by Luke Caldwell in second place with a time of 24:12.40.
Ivy League Championships
PRINCETON, N.J. -- Saturday will now go down in history as the day Columbia captured its fourth Ivy League title at the 2013 Ivy League Cross Country Heptagonal Championships. The Lions put on a show in the 8k race on the way to one its best Heps performances in program history.
With a team total of 48 points, Columbia tied its best total since 1979 when they captured their first Ivy League title. The Lions victory ended the reign of three-time defending conference champion No. 15 Princeton. The Tigers finished in second place with 56 points, followed by Dartmouth in third place with 64 points and No. 21 Harvard in fourth place with 103 points.
The Lions stapled pack-running performed at an all-time high on Saturday with three Lions grabbing top-five finishes. Senior Nicolas Composto led the way with a stellar day to take second-place with a career-best time of 23:44.5. Composto’s runner-up finish marked the fastest individual 8k Heps time in program history and earned the Chicago native a first-team All-Ivy League honor.
