UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. – The Western Washington University men's cross country team earned a top-15 finish placing 14th at the 2022 NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships held Friday morning at Chambers Creek Regional Park.

 

Racing about two hours south of Bellingham, the Vikings were lifted by a strong group of program supporters including current student-athletes, alumni, family and friends who all braved a chilly morning to watch Western compete on the 10-kilometer course on the shores of Puget Sound.

 

WWU entered the national meet ranked No. 16 in the USTFCCCA Division II poll, but moved up two spots for its highest finish at the NCAA Championships since placing 13th in 2014. The Vikings made their 12th trip to nationals and third in the last four seasons.

 

Western finished with 400 team points, placing second among West Regional teams behind Chico State (5th, 265) and ahead of Simon Fraser (19th, 453) and Azusa Pacific (21st, 496).

 

Junior Andrew Oslin led the Vikings placing 65th finishing the 10K in 30:54.7, followed by sophomores George Karamitsos (83rd, 31:03.1), Ryan Clough (88th, 31;06.8) and Jeret Gillingham (95th, 31:13.2). 

 

The Vikings 2022 season was highlighted by winning the Great Northwest Athletic Conference title, earning runner-up team honors at the West Regional Championships and today's 14th-place finish at nationals. 

 

Colorado School of Mines ran away with the team title finishing with a remarkable team score of 43 with all seven of its runners earning All-America honors by placing in the top 40. Wingate earned runner-up honors with 177 points and Colorado Christian was third with 191 points.

 

Dillon Powell of Mines won the individual title covering the course in 29:28.0 for a 19-second victory over Tanner Chada of Grand Valley State. Cole Nash of the University of Alaska Anchorage led all GNAC runners placing 6th to earn All-America honors finishing in 29:57.1 and Charlie Dannatt of Simon Fraser University also earned All-America honors placing 19th in 30:12.2.

  
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Here is a look at the individual performances by the WWU men at the NCAA Championships, with the top four scoring runners all finishing in the top 100 in the 257-racer field. Andrew Oslin steadily moved up throughout his race, sitting in 112th place through 3.8K, 102nd at 4.6K and 85th at 7.2K, eventually placing 65th to lead the WWU contingent:

 

 

The WWU men made its 12th trip to nationals and competed in the championship race for the third time in the last four seasons. The 14th-place finish is the best since placing 13th in 2014 and the eighth time finishing in the top 15 in the nation. Here is a look at WWU's finishes at the NCAA West Regional and National Championships since joining the NCAA in 1998:

 

 

Here is a look by race-by-race results for the Vikings seven student-athletes competed in the 2022 NCAA Championships (PR highlighted in Yellow). The complete 2022 WWU Cross Country schedule with full meet results can be viewed online at wwuvikings.com/22_XC.

 

 

Fans can follow WWU Cross Country online at WWUVikings.com/XC, and via social media