BALTIMORE, MD – The Johns Hopkins men's cross country team earned the top 16 spots in Thursday night's Baltimore Metro to cruise to the overall team title with a perfect score of 15.  Elizabethtown placed second with 62 points, while Susquehanna (101), McDaniel (127) and Lancaster Bible (164) rounded out the top five in the team scoring of the nine-team field.
 
Senior Matt Kleiman paced the Blue Jays as he covered the 5k course in 15:22.6 to narrowly edge teammate Gavin McElhennon, who finished less than a second behind at 15:23.2.  Emmanuel Leblond (3^rd / 15:34.5), Charlie Teeter (4^th / 15:38) and Sean Enright (15:38.2) were Hopkins' three other scoring runners.
 
The Blue Jay depth was on display with the first 16 finishers, 11 of which broke the 16-minute mark.  After Kleiman and McElhennon crossed, the next nine Hopkins runners to finish crossed the line within 25 seconds of each other.
 
This is the second consecutive year that Kleiman has won the season-opening race for Johns Hopkins as he placed first last season at Hopkins' Kickoff Invitational.  That was one of four top-four finishes for Kleiman in 2021.
 
Johns Hopkins will return to action on September 16 when the Blue Jays fly to Michigan to compete in Michigan State's Spartan Invitational.  The race is being held on the same course as the 2022 NCAA Division III Championships will be held in November.