An unprecedented season for the SBU men’s cross country team was cut one meet short this weekend, as the Bearcats failed to advance to the NCAA Cross Country Championships.

SBU, ranked 17^th in the nation heading into the weekend, finished sixth at the South Central Regional Championship held at Keth Memorial Golf Course on the campus of the University of Central Missouri.  #2 nationally ranked Abilene Christian took the team title with a near-perfect 18 points, and will be joined in Pensacola by #11 Missouri Southern (2^nd, 73 points) and host UCM (3^rd, 100 points).  Conference foe Fort Hays State (4^th, 131 points) and #21 East Central (5^th, 147 points) also found themselves in front of the Bearcats, who tallied 188 points for a program-best sixth place.  Seventeen teams finished in the competition.

SBU suffered a tremendous blow to its qualifying hopes when 2006 MIAA Individual Champion T. Jay Sanderson suffered an injury halfway into the ten kilometer race.  Sanderson staggered across the finish line in 73^rd place overall, as the sixth runner for SBU.  The Bearcats were also without the services of freshmen Josh Rollins and Shawn Etzenhouser, who were the third and fifth runners for SBU when they began their season with a win on this same course on September 8.

Sophomore Michael Pierce, who finished 14^th in this meet last year for All-South Central Regional honors, led the Bearcats with his 17^th place finish.  His time of 32:51 left him two places shy of regional distinction at this year’s competition.  Defending NCAA Division II Individual Champion Nicodemus Niamadu of Abilene Christian won the race in a time of 31:34.

A trio of freshmen composed the second through fourth runners for SBU.  Former high school teammates Michael McCampbell and Jeremy Glassmaker finished 29^th and 36^th, respectively, while Timmy Specht was the fourth SBU runner in 42^nd place.  Sophomore Vince Tichenor passed Sanderson with about a half mile remaining and finished 67^th to close out the scorers.  Freshman David Hackney finished in 79^th out of 113 runners as the final Bearcat competitor for the meet.

This weekend brought an end to a spectacular season for the men’s cross country team including a program high national ranking of 10^th in the nation, eight consecutive weeks in the USTFCCCA top-25 national poll, and a runner-up team finish at the 2006 MIAA Conference Championships.  Senior T. Jay Sanderson won the first MIAA individual crown in program history, and joined sophomore Michael Pierce as the first ever All-MIAA honorees in SBU men’s team history.  After winning the CMSU Mule Run to start the 2006 season, the Bearcats finished in the top-3 at every meet this year before the regional meet.