The UW-La Crosse men's cross country team won the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship for the ninth year in a row on Saturday afternoon at the UW-Whitewater campus course.
The Eagles scored 27 points to finish clear of second-place UW-Stevens Point, which scored 46. UW-Whitewater was third with 100 points, followed by UW-Stout, UW-River Falls, UW-Eau Claire, UW-Oshkosh and UW-Platteville. A total of 91 runners finished the 8,000-meter race.
Junior Owen Clark led UWL in third place at 25:01.1. Declan Gregg was fourth in 25:02.1, Kyle Johnson fifth in 25:04, Chase Altergott seventh in 25:09.6 and Ben Weston eighth in 25:12.1, putting all five scoring Eagles inside the top eight. Logan Murphy of UW-Stevens Point won the individual title in 24:07.1.
UWL's depth went beyond its scorers. Will Aurit finished ninth, Thomas Menefee 10th, Owen Layton 11th, Isaac Ewing 12th and Riley Huss 14th, giving the Eagles 10 runners in the top 14.
Johnson was voted the WIAC Newcomer of the Year. Clark, Gregg, Johnson and Altergott earned first-team all-conference honors, while Weston, Aurit, Menefee, Layton, Ewing and Huss made the second team and Chuck Vater, 17th, received honorable mention.
The title is UWL's 41st in the WIAC, a league record. The Eagles, ranked fifth nationally and the two-time defending NCAA Division III champions, race next at the NCAA Division III North Regional on Saturday, Nov. 14, at the St. Olaf course in Northfield, Minnesota.
