Senior James Settles won the NCAA Division III West Region cross country individual title to automatically qualify for next weekend's NCAA Division III National Championship Meet and led Colorado College to a fourth-place team finish Saturday in Riverside, Calif.
 
Settles, who won the SCAC Championship Meet two weeks ago, is CC's first regional champion since Jackson Brainerd won three in a row from 2009-11. Settles finished Saturday's 8K race with a time of 24:23.0. 
 
Fellow senior Devlin Swanson finished fifth with a time of 24.48.1 and will qualify for the national meet as well if the Tigers are not selected as a team.
 
The winning team from the 10 regions around the country automatically qualifies for the NCAA Division III National Championship, while the top seven individuals that are not on that team or other teams selected at-large also advance to the national meet. The team and individual selections will be announced on Sunday, Nov. 12.
 
Pomona-Pitzer took the team title with 45 points, followed by Claremont Mudd-Scripps (93), George Fox (104) and Colorado College (121). CC's fourth-place finish is the best since winning the title in 2011.
 
In addition to Settles and Swanson, freshman Will Shuflit also earned all-region honors with a 30^th place finish in 25:33.5. Seniors Brett Kitazono and Ayden Cherry rounded out the scoring for the Tigers by placing 42^nd and 49^th, respectively.

"James and Devlin ran amazing races at the front and really set the team up for success," head coach Alex Nichols said. "We came in hoping to finish fourth or better, so to see our goal achieved was fantastic. I feel very good about our chances of being selected for the national championship field."

 
The NCAA Division III National Championship is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 18, in Carlisle, Pa.

 
NCAA Division III Men's Cross Country West Region Team Scores
1. Pomona-Pitzer - 45              
2. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps - 93              
3. George Fox - 104             
4. Colorado College - 121             
5. UC Santa Cruz - 132             
6. Caltech - 201             
7. Pacific Lutheran - 214             
8. Trinity (Tex.) - 249             
9. Lewis & Clark - 250              
10. La Verne - 250             
11. Whitworth – 275
12. Redlands - 296              
13. Occidental – 316
14. UT-Dallas – 393
15. Linfield - 434             
16. Whitman – 450
17. Chapman - 476             
18. Southwestern - 533    
19. McMurry – 538
20. Willamette - 540        
21. St. Thomas (TX) - 570             
22. Cal Lutheran - 623             
 
 
Colorado College Individual Results (8K)

Name	Finish	Points	Time
James Settles	1	1	24:23.0
Devlin Swanson	5	5	24:48.1
Will Shuflit	30	28	25:33.5
Brett Kitazono	42	40	25:54.2
Ayden Cherry	49	47	26:02.3
Luc Santos	87	(82)	26:53.9
Dominic Schwein	91	(86)	26:58.4