Rocky Men’s Cross Country Records Historic 4th Place Effort at the NAIA National Championships

| By: Brandon Stinson | Sports Information & Media Coordinator
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.- Sophomore John Spinti raced to All-American honors, leading Rocky Men's Cross Country to a fourth-place finish at the NAIA National Championship race Friday morning. 

The 4th place result is the best finish in program history, capping off one of the great seasons in recent Battlin' Bear history. John Spinti earned All-American honors, joining former National Champion Jackson Wilson and Benson Koech as the only Battlin' Bears to race to All-American honors in Men's Cross Country. 

Spinti's 23rd-place finish led the way for the Battlin' Bears scorers. After working his way through the pack during the opening 2K. Back-to-back 3:05 1k splits helped the sophomore jump 18 places with 3k to go, holding on to a 23rd finish with a time of 25:02.0. 

Seniors Corbyn Svec (25:21.1) and Justin Glass (25:23.9)  finished just two seconds apart in 44th and 49th place, respectively. Svec climbed up the individual standings throughout the final 6k, ultimately passing 44 other competitors over that distance to eventually finish 44th. At the same time, Glass used a steady grind throughout, staying in the top 55 all through the final 6k on his way to a 49th-place finish. 

Zachary Zwiesler impressed in his run, after crossing the first 1,170m split in 160th place, the junior ended the race in 77th place with a time of 25:41.5. He moved up at least five places in every 1k split of the race, utilizing consistent splits and a strong finish in the final 1,000 meters with a split of 3:08.2. 

Sophomore Caleb Tomac rounded out the Battlin' Bear scorers with an 88th-place finish, crossing the line in 25:50.1. Tomac had a strong finish to his race, breaking into the top 100 following his 5k split, eventually passing seven competitors in the final 1k split. 

Joseph Orndorff (230th place; 26:57.0) and Matthew Conrad (245th place; 27:09.9) rounded out Rocky's competitors on Friday. 

The Battlin' Bears' finish of 4th place, totaling 239 team points, is the best by a Frontier Conference men's program since 2019, when Lewis-Clark State College finished third overall. A strong day for the Frontier Conference overall, as Spinti was one of three Frontier Conference competitors to earn All-American honors. Carroll College, the only other Frontier program competing as a team, finished 16th overall. 

Indiana Wesleyan claimed the team title with a team score of 117, with Jack Anderson, a senior from The Master's, earning individual honors with a finish of 24:15.4. 

Up Next
The Battlin' Bears will now reset and prepare for the upcoming Indoor Track and Field season, with a full schedule being released in the coming weeks. 
 

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