By Timothy Walsh, Athletics Communications Writer
CLAREMONT, Calif. -- Four Willamette University runners earned All-West Region honors, as the Bearcat men's cross country team took third place at the 2015 NCAA Division III West Regional championship on Saturday, Nov. 14, hosted by Occidental College on the Pomona-Pitzer campus course.
Willamette finished with a team score of 109 in the men's 8-kilometer race, led by top finisher Nathan Conrad (Sr., Bothell, Wa/Bothell HS), who finished sixth with a time of 25:53.12. Yonny Castillo (Sr., Parkdale, OR/Hood River Valley HS) was 14th in 26:13.20, and Patrick Loftus (So., Healdsburg, CA/Sonoma Academy) placed 21st at 26:27.60.
Jacob Shafi (Sr., Pleasanton, CA/Amador Valley HS) was 30th, crossing the finish line in 26:38.24, and rounding out the Bearcats' All-West Region honorees. The top 35 finishers at the race earned All-West Region recognition.
Hunter Matthies (Sr., Moran, WY/Jackson Hole HS) also contributed to Willamette's team score, achieving 39th place in 27:14.38.
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps won the team title with a score of 51. Pomona-Pitzer placed second at 62, followed by Willamette, the highest-placed Northwest Conference school, in third place. Host Occidental took fourth at 145, with the University of Puget Sound rounding out the top five with a score of 172.
Puget Sound's Tyler Shipley, who last week won the NWC men's individual championship, completed the course in 25:04.48 to win the West Region individual title. John Fowler of Pomona-Pitzer placed second with a time of 25:15.95, and Zorg Loustalet of CMS was third at 25:28.76.
Brad Hodkinson of Pacific Lutheran University achieved fourth place, reaching the finish line in 25:34.60, while UPS' Geremia Lizier-Zmudzinsk took fifth at 25.49.80. The Bearcats' Conrad finished sixth, followed by Pomona-Pitzer's James Kinney in seventh at 25:55.49, and Evan Molineux and Kyle Lund, both of CMS in eighth (25:58.17) and ninth (26:02.46), respectively. Chapman's Chris Reid rounded out the top ten with his time of 26:03.50.
By finishing first and second, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Pomona-Pitzer have earned automatic berths into the NCAA Division III Championships next Saturday, Nov. 21, in Winneconne, Wis. Willamette, Occidental, and UPS are eligible for at-large berths, which will be awarded by the NCAA on Sunday, Nov. 15.
A total of 16 automatic berths and 16 at-large bids will fill the field of team entries for each race at the NCAA Championships. In addition, the top seven runners in each regional whose teams have not received automatic or at-large bids will qualify as individuals, making Conrad certain to represent Willamette as at least an individual in the men's race.
