SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Lebanon Valley men's cross country team capped off a historic season by finishing 22nd out of 32 teams at the NCAA Division III National Championships on Saturday morning at the Milliken Research Park in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
 
LVC scored 586 points and had an average time of 25:43.6. The Dutchmen moved up during the second half of the race after being 28th halfway through at the 4,000-meter mark on the 8,000-meter course. Rory Lieberman finished in the top 100 to lead the Dutchmen as he crossed the line with a time of 25:17.2 in 97th place. Lieberman made his biggest jump from the 1k mark to the 2k mark as the junior moved up 31 spots. He continued his push towards the front and broke into the top 100 over the final kilometer. Joe Chukskie finished 139th in the field of 294 runners with a time of 25:37.2. The senior also made his biggest jump in between 1k and 2k as he moved up 18 spots. Chukoskie finished strong, passing eight runners over the final kilometer.
 
Andrew Namatka was the Dutchmen's third finisher and crossed the line in 25:40.3. The sophomore finished 151st and had his biggest push in between 2k and 3k as he moved up 31 spots to move into the top 200. Namatka then had another big push in between 6k and 7k, moving up 22 more spots. Lukas Walko ran 25:55.8 to finish 190th. The junior had big jumps between 1k and 2k, and 3k and 4k, moving up 22 and 18 spots during those stretches. He finished strong with his second-fastest split of the race on the final kilometer. Wyatt Leitzel got out to a strong start and finished even stronger, running 26:07.6 to cross the line 214th. The sophomore moved up 13 spots over the final kilometer, running a 3:00.6 split to end the race. He started the race with a split of 3:00.3 over the first kilometer.
 
Eric Shelton and Sam Rothstein ended their careers strongly to round out the Dutchmen runners. Shelton had a time of 26:09.5 to finish 218th, while Rothstein was 266th with a time of 26:51.8. Shelton had a big push between 3k and 4k as he moved up 19 spots. He then had another push between 6k and 7k, moving up 14 spots. Rothstein got off to a strong start with a split of 3:00.3 over the first kilometer. He ran strongly over the last half of the race, moving up nine spots after being 275th at the halfway mark.
 
Top-ranked Wisconsin La Crosse won the team title with 82 points. SUNY Geneseo was second with 132 points, just in front of Wartburg with 133 points. NYU finished fourth with 175 points, and RPI rounded out the top five teams with 182 points. Johns Hopkins senior Emmanuel Leblond won the Individual Title with a time of 23:35.0. Augsburg senior Mohammed Bati was second in 23:39.6.

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