Saturday, November 4, 2017

MONMOUTH, Ore. – In his last cross country on his home course, Western Oregon senior David Ribich used the home-course advantage to fuel a victory.

Ribich stayed with the lead pack the entire race and pulled away in the final 300 meters to win the NCAA Division II Men’s Cross Country Championships, held Saturday at Western Oregon’s Ash Creek Preserve. Ribich covered the 10,000-meter course in a time of 29:49.2 to post an eight-second victory over Chico State’s Kyle Medina, who placed second in 29:57.5.

“It was hard in the race because I was trying to be hard to be patient, but every time I went around a corner everyone was yelling ‘Let’s go David’,” Ribich said. “The most difficult part was trying to stay patient. Even though I am a 1,500 guy and I like to kick at the end, I wanted to try and break the pack up a bit.”

With his victory, Ribich qualifies to compete at the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships, which takes place on Sat., Nov. 21, in Evansville, Ind. He will be joined by all of his Western Oregon teammates after the Wolves tied with Simon Fraser for third place in the team competition with a score of 121 points. The Wolves took the third automatic team qualifying spot via tiebreaker with three of the Wolves' top-five runners placing higher than those of the Clan.

Simon Fraser will wait to see if the tie is enough to earn the team an at-large selection to the national meet, The field will be announced on Monday after on NCAA.com.

Chico State claimed the team title with 84 points and Cal Baptist finished second with a score of 84 points. Both teams automatically qualify for the national meet.

Joining Western Oregon as automatic qualifiers in Alaska Anchorage senior and GNAC champion Edwin Kangogo, who placed sixth in a time of 30:11.5. He was the No. 3 finisher in the race not attached to the three automatic qualifiers.

Alaska Anchorage placed fifth with a score of 172 points while Western Washington placed eighth with 213 points.

Junior Dustin Nading joins Ribich as All-West Region selections for Western Oregon, placing 13th with a time of 30:28.9. Western Washington senior Andrew Wise placed 14th in 30:30.9. The Clan had four All-West Region performers with senior Oliver Jorgensen placing 15th in 30:42.4, junior Sean Miller placing 30:46.9, junior Rowan Doherty placing 19th in 30:52.5 and senior Mateo de Dalmases placing 25th in 30:59.0.

NCAA DIVISION II MEN’S WEST REGION CHAMPIONSHIPS
At Ash Creek Preserve, Western Oregon University, Monmouth, Ore.

Team Scores (Top 3 Advance To National Meet): Chico State 55, Cal Baptist 84, Western Oregon 121 (advances to nationals on tiebreaker), Simon Fraser 121, Alaska Anchorage 172, Academy of Art 174, Cal Poly Pomona 178, Western Washington 213, Cal St. San Marcos 235, Cal St. East Bay 302, Azusa Pacific 367, Northwest Nazarene 404, Fresno Pacific 422, San Francisco St. 428, Central Washington 454, Concordia (Ore.) 509, Stanislaus State 513, Montana St. Billings 520, Concordia (Calif.) 537, Dixie State 546, Cal St. Monterey Bay 562, Humboldt State 586, Alaska 596, Seattle Pacific 616, Saint Martin’s 754, Dominican (Calif.) 859.

Top 10 Finishers: 1, David Ribich, WOU, 29:49.2. 2, Kyle Medina, CSUC, 29:57.5. 3, McMarshall Hartzenburg, CBU, 29:59.9. 4, Ruben Dominguez, CPP, 30:01.8. 5, Gatien Airiau, AAU, 30:08.4. 6, Edwin Kangogo, UAA, 30:11.5. 7, Jeremy Porter, APU, 30:12.6. 8, Connor Fisher, CSUC, 30:19.2. 9, Simon Bedard, CBU, 30:21.6. 10, Jack Johnson, CSUC, 30:22.7.

GNAC All-West Region Performers (Top 25): 13, Dustin Nading, WOU, 30:28.9. 14, Andrew Wise, WWU, 30:30.9. 15, Oliver Jorgensen, SFU, 30:42.4. 16, Sean Miller, SFU, 30:46.9. 19, Rowan Doherty, SFU, 30:52.5. 25, Mateo de Dalmases, SFU, 30:59.0.