2018 NCAA Men's Cross Country Championship Results

WINNECONNE, WI  – The Johns Hopkins men's cross country team capped one of the great seasons in school history with a ninth-place finish at the 2018 NCAA Division III Championships Saturday afternoon at Lake Breeze Golf Club.  The Blue Jays totaled 308 points to earn their ninth-place finish, which ranks as the second-highest finish in school history.  The 308 points are the lowest total Johns Hopkins has ever posted at the NCAAs.
 
Top-ranked North Central won the team title with 43 points and was followed by Washington University (MO) (110 points),  Wisconsin-La Crosse (127), Haverford (213) and Wartburg (227) in the top five.  The Blue Jays finished just eight points behind Williams in the battle for eighth and were just 10 points behind Pomona Pitzer, which placed seventh with 298 points.
 
Sophomore Jared Pangallozzi placed 12^th overall (10^th among scoring runners) to lead the way for the Blue Jays.  Pangallozzi, the highest-placing non-junior or senior in the race and the only freshman or sophomore to place in the top 15, clocked in at 24:44.7 and earns All-America honors with his 12^th-place finish, which is the highest in school history.  Johns Hopkins Hall of Famer John Robinson placed 14^th at the 1991 NCAA Championships for the previous best showing by a Blue Jay at the NCAAs.
 
"Jared simply was awesome today," Johns Hopkins head coach Bobby Van Allen noted.  "He got out well - as did most of our guys - and made the move early to stick to the front of the pack." 
 
Pangallozzi stayed with the lead pack for a majority of the race and was within four seconds of the eventual winner  - Dhruvil Patel of North Central - through 5.6K.  Patel would grab the individual crown by just over five seconds and Pangallozzi was in a pack of 14 runners that finished within 16 seconds of each other after Patel crossed the line.
 
While Pangallozzi led the way, the Blue Jays earned their ninth-place finish on the strength of their four remaining scoring runners finishing between 65^th and 81^st among non-individual entries (individuals who qualified do not figure into the team scoring).
 
Senior Oliver Hickson (93^rd overall, 65^th in the team scoring), sophomore Connor Delahanty (105^th, 72^nd) and juniors Andrew King (114^th, 80^th) and Vipul Bhat (115^th, 81^st) rounded out the Blue Jays' scoring runners behind Pangallozzi.
 
Hickson clocked in at 25:33.7, while Delahanty was just four seconds behind at 25:37.8. King (25:41.2) and Bhat (25:41.5) closed strong to create a spread of just 56.8 seconds between the Blue Jays' top five on the day.
 
"The guys kept fighting after getting separated and got back together with one another to form just an eight-second gap between our second and fifth runners with all cracking the top 100 scoring positions of the meet," Van Allen added.  "We improved eight spots in the team standings from last year and three of our top five will return next year.  This was our second-highest finish ever and one we will continue to build on."
 
Rounding out the seven-man contingent for Johns Hopkins at the championship were seniors Alex Doran and Scott Pourshalchi.  Doran clocked in at 26:01 and Pourshalchi was just behind at 26:08.8.
 
- 30 -