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| Jason Garvens | Patrick Klein | Nathan Petesch | Matt Hoefs | Tony Kilburg | Shane Lacy | Aaron Whalen |
Posted November 21, 2009
The UW-Platteville men's cross country team took vans to the NCAA III national championship in Cleveland but didn't need quite as many seats on the way home Saturday.
"They've attached Garvens to a teether and he's floating around outside," Pioneer Coach Tom Antczak said. "He ran a great race."
Led by Jason Garvens fifth-place individual finish, the Pioneers took ninth, the best in school history.
"We're pretty pleased," Antczak said. "It wasn't our A race, but we realized our goals."
Top-ranked North Central won the national championship with 50 points, followed by Williams with 181, Allegheny 195, New York U. 224, Cortland State 232, Geneseo State 271, Wash. U. 285, Haverford 333, UW-Platteville 345, and UW-La Crosse 373 in the top 10.
It was particularly pleasing to the Pioneers to be the top Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference team, surpassing 30-time league champ UW-La Crosse.
"That's the first time we've ever beat them since I've been here so that was pretty sweet," said Antczak, a former La Crosse star in his 18th-year as the UWP coach.
Garvens gave the Pioneers an all-American for the 10 straight year. He was fifth on the tough Highland Hills Golf Course. He ran the 8,000 meters in 25:37, just five seconds out of second place. He joins Tyler Sigl (1st in 2007 and 4th in 2005) and Ryan Kleimenhagen (2nd in 2002) as the only Pioneers with top five national finishes.
"It's something I've wanted since my freshman year," the junior from Byron (Minn.) said of his all-America honors. "I was so happy with it. There's nothing but good feelings."
Patrick Klein (Jr., Monroe) was 56th overall/40th in team in scoring in 26:26, Nathan Petesch (Jr., Bellevuue, Iowa/Marquette) 121st/93rd in 26:52, Matt Hoefs (Sr., Lewiston, Minn.) 124th/96th in 26:53, Tony Kilburg (Sr., Bellevue, Iowa/Marquette) 145th/111th in 27:04, Shane Lacy (So., McFarland) 226th/174th in 27:49, and Aaron Whalen (Sr., Irma/Tomahawk) 243rd/189th in 28:01.
A total of 276 runners and 32 teams competed for the national championship on a tough terrain.
"It was a very challenging course," Antczak said. "They had a lot of rain during the week. It was a true cross country course."
Garvens said the key for him was staying with the front-runners.
"I've been trying to get out in the lead pack, and I employed the same strategy today," he said. "When it came down to the last mile, we were all hurting, but I just dug deeper."
All the Pioneers dug deep Saturday in what will go down in the Platteville history books. UWP was ranked as high as eighth during the year but entered the national competition 14th. They easily surpassed that ranking.
"We're all pretty happy with it," Garvens said. "Being the best team for Platteville at nationals is quite an honor."
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