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Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com

Published - Sunday, November 18, 2007

Zdroik, UW-L men 5th at national meet

By the Tribune staff

NORTHFIELD, Minn. — Don Fritsch knew simply being good likely wasn’t going to be good enough for the

UW-La Crosse men’s cross country team.

Fritsch, the Eagles’ coach, believed his team had a decent shot at winning the NCAA Division III Championships on Saturday at St. Olaf College. But then again, Fritsch knew there were about five other teams in the field that could say the same thing. There was, in Fritsch’s words, “no room for error” if UW-L was to have a chance.

When Fritsch looked at the final results — the Eagles finished fifth with 221 points — he saw good things. UW-L senior Paul Zdroik finished fifth with an 8,000-meter time of 24 minutes, 44 seconds and earned All-American honors. The gap between Dan Thour, UW-L’s

No. 2 runner, and Dallas Vincent, UW-L’s No. 5 runner, was one second.

However, the unfortunate thing for the Eagles, ranked third in Division III, was Thour and Co. were too far back in the pack to help UW-L break into the top four and earn a trophy. Thour was 71st in 25:39; Aquinas High School graduate Connor Lonning was 72nd in 25:39; Paul Moran was 73rd in 25:40; and Vincent was 74th in 25:40.

“Our goal was to keep moving up all the way to the finish line,” Fritsch said. “But it got to a point with 1,000 meters to go where we weren’t gaining any more ground.”

New York University won the title with 128 points. Haverford was second with 150 points, Cortland State was third with 158, and Calvin College was fourth with 214.

The UW-L women finished 18th with 452 points. Soph-omore Katelynn Williams was the Eagles’ top runner, covering the 6,000-meter course in 22:33. Amherst won with 120 points.

“All in all we ran well,” UW-L women’s coach Pat Healy said. “Four weeks ago I wasn’t sure if we’d even have a team at nationals. But the kids did a pretty good job.”