2018 DII XC National Championships Results

PITTSBURGH – On a rainy, muddy, dreary day in the Steel City, the Colorado School of Mines Men's Cross Country team raced to a national runner-up finish at the NCAA Division II Cross Country National Championships as the Oredigger women took fifth – matching their best-ever finish in program history.
 
Redshirt senior Josh Hoskinson paced the men with a 10th-place, all-America finish – running the sloppy 10,000-meter course in 32:38.0. Megan Wenham led the women with a 42nd-place finish as she ran 6,000 meters in 23:36.7. Both performances mark career-best, national finishes for Hoskinson and Wenham.
 
Mines' men finished the day with a total of four all-America runners. Joining Hoskinson were Logan Ramlet (15th), Grant Colligan (17th) and Luc Hagen (33rd). Colligan and Ramlet become three-time all-Americans for the Orediggers while Hoskinson earns his second honor and Hagen his first. The Oredigger women just missed all-America honors but placed two in the top 50 and five in the top 80 with Maddie Geesen taking 49th, Zoe Baker 68th, Kara Burton 69th and Brook Eberle 79th.
 
Saturday's race is the men's first runner-up finish since 2012 and the second in program history. The Oredigger women matched their best-ever finish from 2005 and improved six spots from 11th in 2017. Overall, Grand Valley State swept the men's and women's team titles while the RMAC had three men's teams and three women's teams inside the top five. For the men it was Mines #2, Western Colorado #3 and Adams State #4. On the women's side, Adams State took third, Western Colorado fourth and Mines fifth. Also representing the RMAC and South Central Region was CSU-Pueblo's Marcelo Laguera winning the men's individual crown.
 
MEN'S RACE SUMMARY
With emotions high and hopes higher, the men's 10,000-meter start proved anti-climactic as the racers were called back for a restart with a fall amongst the 260-plus runners. On the second start, Mines positioned itself near the front, but a tight bottleneck and hundreds of bodies led to a near-tragic fall for Colligan – the Orediggers top runner and one of the three favorites for an individual crown.
 
The senior quickly regained his footing and began his climb back to the lead pack. In the meantime, teammates Hagen and Hoskinson picked up the slack as the duo raced #2 and #13 to hold Mines in third place through the first 700 meters. The Orediggers maintained that spot through 1,700 meters and moved up to second as a team after 2,800 meters as Colligan climbed from #63 to #22 over that distance.
 
Over the next 4,000 meters, standings proved tumultuous as Hoskinson dropped from 13th to 28th and rose back to 14th. At the same time, Ramlet climbed from #48 to #17 and Colligan battled his way up to #16. Those three performances kept Mines in the top three and in position for no less than silver.
 
The Orediggers would not drop out of second place over the final 3,200 meters. Hoskinson came up big with his final half as he moved up the ranks from #14 to #10. Colligan maintained his spot in the top 20 to cap off a gutsy comeback and Ramlet clawed his way from #17 to #15 after sitting 76th to start the race. Hagen also put a stamp of approval on his redshirt season with a four-spot kick over the final 1,200 meters. Luke Julian capped Mines' scoring as he finished 41st after entering the home stretch in 50th.
 
MEN'S RESULTS
10th – Josh Hoskinson – 32:30.0
15th – Logan Ramlet – 32:46.5
17th – Grant Colligan – 32:51.5
33rd – Luc Hagen – 33:18.9
41st – Luke Julian – 33:34.4
66th – Derek Steele – 34:05.1
67th – Jake Mitchem – 34:06.6
 
WOMEN'S RACE SUMMARY
With the rain coming down in earnest, the women's 6,000-meter race also experienced a restart. The second start proved successful and the trio of Baker, Eberle and Wenham raced through the first 700 meters in 59th, 60th and 64th to give Mines an early hold on seventh place in the team standings.

The next 1,100 meters saw the duo of Wenham and Baker climb 22 spots and 14 spots to #42 and #45, respectively. Geesen (+46), Morgan Molesworth (+37), Burton (+19) and Eberle (+5) also made moves through the pack over 1,800 meters to help the Orediggers hold strong in seventh a third of the way through the race.
 
Wenham used her previous national championship experience to climb as high as 36th and true freshman Baker moved as high as 45th – helping Mines into fifth place with 2,100 meters remaining. Alaska Anchorage would threaten that standing down the stretch. However, huge kicks from Eberle, Molesworth, Burton and Geesen cemented the Orediggers' best finish in the last two decades.
 
WOMEN'S RESULTS
42nd – Megan Wenham – 23:36.7
49th – Maddie Geesen – 23:42.9
68th – Zoe Baker – 24:03.5
69th – Kara Burton – 24:04.6
79th – Brook Eberle – 24:12.3
81st – Morgan Molesworth – 24:15.5
110th – Michaela Reynolds – 24:29.3
 
WHAT'S NEXT
Mines' runners move right into indoor track & field season as the Orediggers host the Mines Alumni Classic & Multi Dec. 6-7 inside Steinhauer Fieldhouse. Live results of the event will be available at www.MinesAthletics.com/tracklive.

Keep up with Colorado School of Mines Athletics all season long on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using the handle @MinesAthletics.