Grant on to national meet, PR time at Regionals
Jon Denham, Sports Information Director
November 12, 2007

Senior cross country runner Ben Grant outran all but one competitor on Saturday in Northfield, Minnesota at the NCAA III Central Region meet to earn the first individual spot for the region at the NCAA III Cross Country Championships November 17.

Grant, a senior from Peosta, Iowa and Western Dubuque High School graduate ran the 8K course in 25:10. He was 12 seconds from first place and three seconds ahead of third - his pace was 5:04. Grant's previous PR was 25:16, set in 2006 at the IIAC meet.

This is Ben's third consecutive trip to the national meet. In 2005 he finished in 27:37.6 as a sophomore. In 2006 he finished as an All-American (20th overall, top IIAC runner) in 27:24.

Saturday's race will be the third time this season Ben has run the St. Olaf course. On October 6th, Ben ran a 27:17 and finished in fifth place. The team finished sixth that day. On November 10th Loras finished 13th as a team and Grant was second overall. The NCAA Central Region meet was at St. Olaf in 2006 as well. Grant ran a sixth place 25:51 on that day. His time Saturday was 41 seconds faster than 2006.

Head coach Bob Schultz was more than happy with Ben's effort at regionals. "The weather was great. There were a lot of PR's posted as a result, and conditions were near perfect." Schultz added, "Things unfolded perfectly for Ben. He was so happy with how he felt and the overall pace, he was able to perform at a PR level and outrun some great competition."

Race time for November 17th is 12:00 PM.

NCAA/St. Olaf Championship Info