Fighting Bee men win third straight Midwest Collegiate Conference Crown

Nov. 8, 2008

The St. Ambrose men's cross country team has punched their ticket to the NAIA National Championships, while capturing their third straight Midwest Collegiate Conference title.

The Fighting Bee men, led by freshman John Darmody's second place finish, won the MCC crown for the third straight year and are benefactors of the NAIA's new "direct qualifier" which sends the conference champion team an automatic bid to nationals.

The Bees will race against the best in the NAIA in two weeks, Nov. 22, in Kenosha, Wis.

Darmody was joined by Doug Brusich, Austin Quinn, Keith Randle and Shane Shemek as SAU had all five scorers in the top 12. The Bees were 15 points better than second place Mount Mercy and 27 points better than third place Grand View.

The Fighting Bee women didn't have as good of luck, as they finished five points shy of the conference crown and automatic berth, finishing behind Mount Mercy. There were three women however that will be racing at the NAIA Nationals. Katelynn Krahn, Brooke Ashcraft, and Lauren Cleary will all toe the line in Kenosha representing the Bees.

Those three women also earned all-conference given to the top 7 runners to finish. Darmody was the lone Fighting Bee male on the all-conference team.

"There's no doubt we saved our best for last. We were picked to finish third on both sides, and our kids stepped up," SAU coach Dan Zeimet said. "It's the first time all season the men have run what they're capable of on the same day. The women have been fighting through injuries all season, and today we just didn't have enough to win."

Zeimet was also named MCC Men's XC Coach of the Year for the third straight season, and has won a conference title in five of his six years at the helm of the SAU XC program, starting with back-to-back titles on the women's side in 2003 and 2004 and now three straight with the men in 2006, 2007 and 2008.

The men's title is the 13th MCC crown for the Bees since the league started the race in 1990. The trip to Nationals will mark the first time since 2000 the Fighting Bee men have advanced as a team, and only the second time in school history.