CEDARVILLE, Ohio — At the conclusion of the NCCAA Men’s Cross Country Championship meet Saturday, North Central University men’s cross country coach Trey Meadows sat down with a page of handwritten results and a calculator to confirm his hopeful suspicion. After scoring the meet by hand and checking his math four times, Meadows announced what the NCU Men’s Cross Country team had been waiting more than three years to hear: The North Central Rams were national champions.

After finishing second for the previous three consecutive seasons, the Rams ended their 2006 season in style by winning the 2006 NCCAA-II National Championship by the slimmest of margins — just six points — over Northland Baptist Bible College (Dunbar, Wis.).

Freshman Daniel Bare (Portage, Wis.) won the individual championship with a time of 28.22 and senior John Gieske (Sauk Centre, Minn.) was the runner up with a time 28.53. Additionally, junior Dan Scally (Grand Rapids, Minn.) finished fifth to round out the All-Americans for the Rams. NCU has never before had three NCCAA-II All-Americans in the same year.

The story of the race, however, was the poor weather and course conditions. Just 42 degrees at the start of the race, conditions were further hampered by persistent rain leading up to the start of the race. Furthermore, the course at Cedarville University had already been made sloppy by the women’s national championship race, run immediately before the men’s event.

Along with Bare, Gieske and Scally, sophomore Edwin Schenk (Ironwood, Mich.) finished 14th and freshman John Schreiner (Warrenton, Va.) finished 21st. Northland Baptist, who beat the Rams in 2005, finished third, seventh, ninth, 13th, and 16th.

Gieske was also named an NCCAA Scholar Athlete, an award given to athletes who are junior or senior status with a 3.4 cumulative GPA or higher.

CEDARVILLE, OHIO — The North Central University women’s cross country team successfully defended their NCCAA-II National Championship Saturday, winning for the second consecutive year. The Rams boasted the top two finishers in the Division II race, with sophomore Trisha Steen (Buffalo, Minn.) winning her first individual national title and sophomore Stephanie Christensen (Flushing, Mich.) finishing in the second spot. Both Steen and Christensen are designated NCCAA-II All-Americans for the second consecutive year. All-American status is granted to the top five finishers in the national race.

The Rams cruised to victory by a large, 26 point margin over Baptist Bible College (Clark Summit, Penn.). In 2005 BBC also finished second to the Rams, although by a much smaller, four point margin.

The overarching story of the race, however, was the poor conditions. Temperature at race start was officially 42 degrees, with a 15-25 mph wind resulting in a wind chill hovering at the freezing point. To make matters worse, rain fell steadily for the duration of the event, which made the course exceptionally soft and muddy. Times across the board were slower than average for all participants in the women’s event.

In addition to claiming the top two places in the race, NCU put all five of its scoring runners in the top ten places. Sophomore Angela Riley (Rosemount, Minn.) finished sixth, senior Leah Cameron (Brookfield, Wis.) finished eighth and senior Erin Steen (Buffalo, Minn.) rounded out the top ten.

Additionally, Cameron and senior Bree Viens (Apple Valley, Minn.) were designated NCCAA Scholar-Athletes. Criteria for Scholar-Athletes requires recipients to be junior or senior status with a 3.4 cumulative GPA or higher.