UPLAND, Ind. -- Indiana Wesleyan University cleaned up on Saturday at the Crossroads League Men’s Cross Country Championship. IWU won the hardware for both the team and individual championships.

No. 5 Indiana Wesleyan won the title with a mere 23 points as they outdistanced runner-up No. 17 Taylor (Ind.) with 75 points. No. 21 Goshen (Ind.) claimed third place at 82 points and No. 15 Marian (Ind.) finished fourth place with 85 points.

“I was real pleased as we had a very good day,” said IWU head coach John Foss. “The 23 points we scored is the lowest point total we have had at this meet since 1992. We have had some very good teams the past 20 years that scored a lot more than 23 points and we did it against three ranked teams.”

The Wildcats finished with six All-Crossroads League selections as they placed in the top-15 in the meet. Highlighting the All-League performances was the individual Crossroads League champion Neno Bellinotti (FR/Sweetser, Ind.) with a time of 25 minutes 31 seconds.

“Neno is the first individual champion we have had since 1993 when Lance Fisher won it,” said Foss. “So it has been a long time since we have had an individual champion and it is very cool. And it is only the second time in our history that we had six All-League runners.”

The next four Wildcats to score for Indiana Wesleyan were Jacob Reinking (SO/Ft. Wayne, Ind.) who was third place in a time of 26:09, John Wilson (JR/Angola, Ind.) who was fourth place in 26:16, Josh Neideck (FR/Upland, Ind.) in sixth place at 26:22, and Tyler Laubach (JR/Walnutport, Pa.) in ninth place as he crossed the line in 26:36.

“The other four guys were right there with Neno,” stated Foss. “We had a tremendous 1-5 gap at 1:05 and that’s the best we’ve been all year.”

The sixth All-League runner for Indiana Wesleyan was Alex Brown (JR/Coleman, Mich.) who finished 13th overall in a time of 26:46. Steven Osladil (JR/Hanover, Pa.) was the seventh Wildcat across the line in a time of 27:21 as he was 27th.

Following the meet it was announced that Foss was the Crossroads League Men’s Cross Country of the Year.

Indiana Wesleyan earns an automatic berth to the NAIA National Championship meet on November 22 in Lawrence, Kansas. “We are going to be ready for nationals,” said Foss. “They have really come into their own in the right time and in the right way.”