ANNVILLE, Pa. – The Lebanon Valley cross country teams are ready to make a statement on Saturday as the men's team and Coyla Bartholomew from the women's team will run at the NCAA Division III National Championship in Spartanburg, S.C., on the course at the Roger Milliken Center. The men's race will be first at 10 a.m. with the women's race to follow at 11 a.m.
 
The men's team qualified for the National Championships as an at-large team after an excellent season where they won the program's second consecutive Middle Atlantic Conference title and finished third at the Mid-Atlantic Region Championships. The Dutchmen are ranked 26th in the latest U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) National Coaches' Poll. LVC was able to put themselves in a great spot to qualify for Nationals at the Paul Short Run when they finished sixth in a stacked field of teams, including defeating MIT, which is currently ranked tied for seventh in the nation. The Dutchmen held their own in a field of 12 nationally ranked teams. MIT was ranked 19th at the time, while the Dutchmen were 30th.
 
LVC will have men running at the National Championships for the first time since 2022, when Jordan Berger and Noah Griffin ran on a freezing day and snow-covered course in East Lansing, Michigan. The conditions will be a lot better on Saturday as the weather forecast shows a high of 78 and a slight chance of a rain shower in Spartanburg.
 
Bartholomew became the sixth women's runner in program history to qualify as an individual and the second in the past three years, with one of the best races of her career last weekend at the Regional Championships. Lauren Bunke was the fifth woman in program history to qualify and finished 129th with a time of 22:44.4 on the same course Bartholomew ran on Saturday, Big Spring High School in Newville, at the 2023 National Championships. Bartholomew finished 14th to qualify for the National Championships with a time of 22:17.9. She was close to her career-best time of 22:02.9 that she ran last year at the Regional Championship to finish 22nd on the course at Lock Haven. The senior will have a couple of familiar faces in the field on Saturday as three other MAC runners qualified for the Championships. Misericordia first-year Madison Hedglin finished fourth at the Mid-Atlantic Championships, while Widener senior Kathryn Long finished second, and DeSales sophomore Ellie Kozich finished fourth at the Metro Region Championships.
 
The men's team is coming off a strong regional race where their top five finishers all earned All-Region honors by placing in the top 35. The Dutchmen have 10 runners entered in Saturday's Championship, with only seven able to run in the race. Rory Lieberman, Joe Chokoskie, Andrew Namatka, Lukas Walko, Eric Shelton, Wyatt Leitzel, and Dylan Lenhart were the seven runners at last Saturday's regional. Samuel Bower, Elijah McKell, and Sam Rothstein are alternates for the Dutchmen and could step into the lineup and run on Saturday. Eight of the 10 Dutchmen have run career-best times this season.
 
Lieberman ran a career-best time of 24:19.2 at Lock Haven and is coming off a time of 25:44.3 at regionals and 25:17.0 to win the MAC Championship. He finished fourth at Paul Short with a time of 24:30.2. Chukoskie ran 25:07.1 at Lock Haven, 25:50.1 last week, and 25:34.3 at MACs. Namatka ran a career-best time of 25:15.6 at the Aubrey Shenk Invitational, 25:59.0 at regionals, and 26:21.4 at the conference meet. Walko also had a career-best at the Aubrey Shenk Invitational with a time of 25:15.4, ran 26:07.5 last weekend, and a time of 26:10.1 at the MAC Championships. Shelton ran a career-best 25:17.2 at the Aubrey Shenk Invitational, 26:13.2 at regionals, and 26:06.4 at MACs.
 
Leitzel had a career-best time of 25:48.7 at the Inter-Regional Border Battle, ran 26:19.7 last Saturday at regionals, and a time of 26:25.5 at the MAC Championships. Lenhart's career best time is 26:07.6, which he ran at the regional meet last year on Lock Haven's course. This year, he has run a season-best time of 26:22.3 at Lock Haven, 27:11.2 last week at Big Spring High School, and 26:55.5 at the MAC Championships. Rothstein was 24th at MACs with a time of 27:03.3 to earn All-MAC honors, and ran a season-best time of 26:35.3 at the Dutchmen Invitational in his only two races this season. He has a career-best time of 25:41.7 that he ran at the Inter-Regional Border Battle in 2023. Bower earned All-MAC honors with a time of 27:10.8 at the MAC Championships and ran a career-best time of 26:14.1 at the Lock Haven Invitational. McKell ran a career-best time of 26:00.6 at the Inter-Regional Border Battle and had a time of 27:27.7 at the MAC Championships.

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