Wabash placed four runners in the top-nine spots at Friday afternoon's Indiana Intercollegiate Cross Country Championships to win the team title in the Little State Division. Senior Seth Einterz took the Little State individual title with a winning time of 25:40.30.
Kevin McCarthy took fourth place, finishing the 8,000-meter course at Purdue University in 26:13.60. Donavan White was eighth for the Little Giants with a time of 26:35.00, while Justin Allen took ninth place (26:35.10). Corey McFarland completed the team scoring for Wabash with his 16th-place finishing time of 26:55.90.
Brian David finished in 32nd place (27:27.00), and Dalton Boyer took 33rd place (27:27.20).
Wabash scored a total of 38 points, crushing the rest of the Little State field consisting of non-Division I men's cross country programs. DePauw took second place with 91 points, while Franklin was third with 102. Manchester (127) and the University of Indianapolis (140) rounded out the top-five team places.
The Little Giants last Little State title came in 1995 when current head coach Roger Busch was a senior on the Wabash cross country team.
"It's pretty exciting," Busch said. "We changed our season philosophy around this year. In the past we've bypassed the Little State race and kept some of our top runners out of the competition. This year we skipped the Great Lakes Colleges Association championship meet six days ago and really prepared for this meet . I believe it helps us in two areas — in recruiting as we now know we are the top small school cross country program in the state of Indiana, plus most of our roster is from the state so they guys get to perform in front of their families and friends.
"I was excited to see our guys get after it early. We've gone up to Purdue four or five times this season. Our guys knew the course well. What is really impressive is that we haven't even really started working out hard yet. This was our first 8k, so to start with wins in the Hokum Karem and now at Little State sets a good standard for the rest of the season. Amazingly we didn't have our best day as a team, but we had a good day. We can run even better. Seth and Kevin ran well, but are capable of doing even more. Donavan and Justin really stepped up. They've both been hurt in the past, but they've worked hard, are healthy, and gave us great performances today. McFarland had a big day in his first 8k. He's a low mileage guy from a small high school. I think he can improve that time even more as the season continues. Top to bottom from positions one through nine we ran really well."
Einterz (left) finished 19th in the combined field of all collegiate cross country runners, competing head to head with athletes from Indiana University, Purdue, Butler, Indiana State, and IUPUI. The Little Giants finished sixth among the 22 Indiana colleges competing in Friday's event. IU won the overall team competition with 37 points. Purdue was second (44 points), followed by Indiana State (53), Butler (95), and IUPUI (168). Wabash scored a total of 179 points in the overall team competition.