Wheeling, W. Va. - The 2024 Mountain East Conference (MEC) Men's Cross Country Championships were run on Saturday at Oglebay Park. The Wheeling University Men's Cross Country team brought in a young group, with three of the five runners running in their first championship event, as they finished 10th in the field, The Cardinals had two runners finish in the top 50 of the event as they wrapped up a strong day on the track.
Leading the Cardinal's efforts was junior Hunter Tomich, who finished 40th overall with a time of 27:45.47. Tomich would improve his time from last season's MEC Championship event, where he ran a time of 27:59.9, dropping 14 seconds off his time. Tomich has been the Cardinal's top runner in three of their four events during the season, with one top 10 finish on his record. Tomich ran in his third career MEC Championship event and was the Cardinal's top runner for the Cardinals for the first time at the event. He looks to continue to provide strong leadership for the Cardinals as they head into the 2024 NCAA DII Atlantic Regional Crossover.
The other top 5-0 finisher for the Cardinals was sophomore Shane Levesque, who was competing in his first MEC Championship event. He would finish five spots behind Tomich in 45th, and ran a time of 28:11.80. He finished 12 seconds behind Tomich and was the Cardinals second leading runner for the fifth time this season. Magnus Polkner would round out the top three for the Cardinals, finishing 59th with a time of 28:42.41. For Polkner, it was his first career MEC Championship event and he put together a strong showing. With a young core in place, the Cardinals look to continue to build on their success as they head into regionals.
The final two runners for the Cardinals were CJ Anderson and Drew Pierce, who finished 93rd and 94th respectively. Anderson was the most veteran runner to take the course, running in his fourth conference championship event, and finished 93rd with a time of 36:04.98. Drew Pierce was running in his first MEC Championship event, finishing 94th with a time of 27:59.76.
The Wheeling University Men's Cross Country team will return to action on Saturday, November 9th, when they run at the NCAA DII Atlantic Regional Championships, hosted by Lock Haven University.
