November 13, 2010

WILLIAMSTOWN, MA – Saint Joseph's senior Eric Friend (Portland, ME/Cheverus) placed 184th out of 333 runners with a 29:34 effort in the 2010 NCAA Regional Championship 8K on Saturday.

Friend was the only SJC runner to participate in the regional event, which was the Monks' final race of the 2010 campaign.

Three NESCAC runners were the first to cross the finish line. Junior Michael Schmidt of Middlebury captured top individual honors with a 25:40 performance, while Williams junior Josephat Koima finished four seconds off the pace to collect runner-up honors. Amherst senior Will Yochum placed third (25:50) and was followed by a pair of Keene State seniors, Timothy Pipp (25:56) and Eric Macknight (25:57) to round out the top five individuals.

MIT collected top team honors with 93 total points and three runners in the top 12 overall. Host Williams College placed second (101), Brandeis – the top-ranked team in the region for most of the fall – finished third (139) and Middlebury placed fourth (145). As the result of a tiebreaker, Bates placed fifth over Wesleyan. Both notched 150 team points, but the Bobcats' sixth runner placed 74th while the Cardinals #6 placed 99th, meaning Bates would secure the #5 spot.

The top two teams in all eight regions gain entry into the NCAA DIII Championship, hosted by Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa next weekend. For Bates, the tiebreaker for the fifth spot could prove to be important, since as many as five teams from the New England Region have been selected to participate in the national event in a given year.

Southern Maine placed 13th with 378 points and GNAC Champion Johnson & Wales finished 15th with 454 points.