LAWRENCE, Kan. -- The Indiana Wesleyan University men’s cross country team had many great races today en route to a 21st place finish at the NAIA National Championship at Rim Rock Farm in Lawrence, Kansas.

Four Wildcats either ran new or tied PR’s in the final race of the season. The Wildcats were 21st in the 32 team field despite entering the national championship meet unranked.

“We’re thrilled,” said Indiana Wesleyan head coach John Foss. “We weren’t even ranked and finished 21st. The guys gave it everything they had and were passing people all the way to the end of the race. That was a huge difference and probably brought us from 25th or 26th to 21st in the last 1,000-meters.”

Indiana Wesleyan earned 556 points in the meet and was the only Crossroads League team competing. Oklahoma City (Okla.) won the national championship with 77 points while Southern Oregon was runner-up with 124 points. Eric Avila of Southern Oregon won the individual national championship with a time of 24:02 on the 8,000-meter course.

Sophomore John Wilson was the first Wildcat across the line in a time of 26:06. He was 119th overall (93rd in team scoring) in the 313-runner field. Wilson tied his PR time which he set last month at the Pre-NAIA Meet at the same course.

Freshmen Jacob Reinking and Parker Williams were the next two across the line for Indiana Wesleyan. Reinking was 144th (107th) in 26:16 and Williams was 150th (110th) at 26:19. The final two scorers for Indiana Wesleyan were freshman Nathan Gerick and sophomore Tyler Laubach. Gerick also had a PR at 26:25 and was 166th (121st) while Laubach PR’ed at 26:27 for 172nd place (125th).

“John has been our leader all year and was again today in 26:06,” said Foss. “That matched his time here a month ago which are both his PR. We had Jacob Reinking and Parker Williams go 2-3 as our freshmen again did a great job. Probably our biggest surprise was Nathan Gerick who came in with a 26:56 for his PR and he ran a 26:25 today and was our fourth man. Tyler Laubach has been injured and has struggled coming back from that injury and was seventh for us at league.  Today he was fifth in 26:27 which is a PR.”

Rounding out the Indiana Wesleyan team were sophomores Steven Osladil and Matt Abebe. Osladil set a PR with a 27:05 and took 229th place (162nd) and Abebe ran a 27:22 for 250th (179th).

“It was just a great team day,” continued Foss. “They worked together and the gap between our No. 1 and No. 5 was awesome. We are a very young team with three freshmen and four sophomores and I’m very excited about that group.”

The NAIA also released its 2013 NAIA-Daktronics Men’s Cross Country Scholar-Athletes. On the list for Indiana Wesleyan were Jared Johnson, Gus Ozmun, and David Percy. To be on the list, the student-athlete must be at least a junior in standing with a 3.5 GPA on a 4.0 scale.