Somewhere inside Connor Lonning's locker in Mitchell Hall, there's a campus meal card from the mid-1990s.

No, Lonning isn't UW-La Crosse's oldest senior. He was just the school's youngest unofficial freshman.

Lonning today will say farewell to an important leg of his journey at UW-L when he leads the Eagles men's cross country team at the NCAA Division III Championships in Highland Hills, Ohio.

"I pretty much grew up in Mitchell Hall," Lonning said. "I can't even count how many meets I've been in and how many days I've trained. For this to be the last team meet ever, it's a weird feeling."

Lonning's parents, Greg and Kealy, worked at Western Technical College as residence hall directors, and Greg was UW-L's wrestling coach in the 1990s.

Connor started attending the child care center on campus when he was about 3, and in a lot of ways, never left.

Not that he didn't try. Lonning was a standout distance runner at Aquinas High School. UW-L, currently ranked second in the nation, with its premier small-college cross country and track programs, would have seemed a natural fit.

Lonning wasn't so sure.

"The funny thing is, I didn't want to go to school here," Lonning said. "By nature, I love traveling, I love meeting new people, going new places, and I didn't want to stay where I grew up."

Lonning did know he liked the city and the campus, but he figured that was just from familiarity.

After going on over 20 campus visits, a couple as far as California, Lonning found himself right back at UW-L.

"I realized it had everything I wanted," Lonning said. "The size, the city, and it's a great city for running, my major is physical education, and then you look up and see the (national championship) banners, so it was a perfect fit.

"But talk about not going far-I went to Emerson Elementary (next to UW-L). I'd hop the fence every day to come over here. I literally grew up in Mitchell Hall."

Lonning kept growing. He said he was 5-foot-5, 112 pounds when he graduated from high school, and continued to be relatively undersized in the early portion of his college career before a long-awaited growth spurt. Now, he's 5-11, 140.

"I was a late bloomer," Lonning said.

Lonning has been a steady performer throughout his UW-L cross country career. He made the national meet roster in each of his first three seasons as the Eagles finished 11th, fifth, and sixth. Lonning's best finish individually was 60th last year.

This year, Lonning took it upon himself not only to improve as a runner, but take a leadership role.

A self-described "goofball" early in his career, Lonning said the younger runners now call him another name-think "jerk" only harsher.

"Because I grew up here, more than anyone else I understand the traditions of UW-La Crosse running," Lonning said. "And I'll be damned if it's on my watch when it starts to fall apart."

Freshman Zach Wilhelmy, also an Aquinas graduate and a close friend of Lonning's, said his leadership has been effective this fall.

"He's pretty much been our rock," Wilhelmy said.

Lonning still has two full seasons each of indoor and outdoor track and field, and graduation in spring of 2011 seems a long way away.

As for going to school a hop, skip, and a warmup run from home, he has no regrets.

"Competing, coming together with a group of guys for one goal, it's something that you don't have very many opportunities for in a lifetime," Lonning said. "I wanted to be at a place where I could have those opportunities every year. I'm so glad I decided to come here."

UW-L WOMEN: The Eagles finished third in their regional and needed an at-large bid to get into the national meet.

Senior Stephanie Perleberg doesn't think that means the La Crosse women's team can't do good things today.

"I think we'd like to make the top 10, and be in position to be in the middle range of that," said Perleberg, the team's top finisher at the regional meet (fourth).

The Eagles finished eighth at the national meet last season.

This will be Perleberg's first national cross country meet, but she and senior Katelynn Williams, a national meet veteran who led the team in 44th last year, give UW-L two strong lead runners.

"We just want to roll with the energy that is the national meet," Perleberg said. "No matter what, we think the season went really well."

VITERBO WOMEN: The V-Hawks program, in just its second season, has two runners qualified for the today's NAIA National Championships in Vancouver, Wash.

Sophomore Bea Foley and freshman Rosemary Loken ran well at the MCC Meet to qualify for nationals. Foley finished second overall and Loken was seventh. Viterbo placed second, one spot away from an automatic team berth.