(Portions of this story courtesy of Colorado College and Trinity University Sports Information Departments)
NEWVILLE, Pa., -- Senior James Settles capped his outstanding career at Colorado College Saturday with a fourth-place finish and All-America honors at the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championship in Newville, Pa.
Settles, who covered the 8K course with a time of 24:30.2, posted the second-best result at the national meet in program history, just behind Julian Boggs' third-place result in 2006. He is also CC's first All-American since Jackson Brainerd finished 18th in 2009.
Settles, who was in the top 10 from the start and in second place at the 5K mark, finished behind national champion Ethan Gregg of Wisconsin-Lacrosse, Christian Patzka of Wisconsin-Whitewater and Max Svienty of North Central College.
Colorado College finished 26th as a team in its first appearance at the national meet since 2011. That is the best result for the Tigers since placing 25th in 2009.
Fellow seniors Devlin Swanson and Brett Kitazono finished 87th and 199th, respectively, followed by freshman Will Shuflit in 231st and sophomore Luc Santos rounded out the scoring for the Tigers in 264th place. Sophomore Dominic Schwein (276th) and senior Ayden Cherry (298th) also ran for the Tigers.
Pomona-Pitzer took the team title with 158 points, edging Wisconsin-Whitewater (159) and North Central College (169).
Additionally, Trinity junior Will Salony qualified for the NCAA National Championship to represent the Tigers on Saturday.
Salony crossed the finish line in 25:21.06 to earn 58th individually, which is the best finish in Trinity men's cross country history. The previous best was a 71st-place finish by Bryant Wright in 2008. Salony qualified for Nationals for the second straight season, earning 110th place last year – the fifth-best in school history.
With his qualification this year, Salony became the first Trinity men's runner to make back-to-back appearances at the NCAA Championships since Wright did so in 2008 and 2009.
NCAA Division III Men's Cross Country Championship Team Scores
1. Pomona-Pitzer - 158
2. Wisconsin-Lacrosse - 159
3. North Central - 169
4. Williams - 212
5. Wartburg - 232
6. Carnegie Mellon - 252
7. RPI - 267
8. MIT - 274
9. Lynchburg - 286
10. Wisconsin-Whitewater - 301
11. George Fox – 304
12. Claremont- 338
13. St. Olaf – 338
14. Johns Hopkins – 391
15. Central College - 407
16. NYU – 424
17. Washington U. - 440
18. Amherst - 487
19. Middlebury – 493
20. John Carroll - 498
21. Wisconsin-Stout - 510
22. Emory – 536
23. Calvin – 538
24. Tufts – 560
25. Mount Union - 594
26. Colorado College – 597
27. Haverford – 599
28. Carleton – 611
29. Loras – 675
30. Washington & Lee – 681
31. U. of Chicago – 701
32. SUNY-Geneseo - 788