LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Finding themselves more banged-up than they would prefer on NCAA Championship day, the No. 30 nationally ranked Bates men's cross country team outpaced its seeding and finished 26th out of 32 teams at the national meet held Saturday morning at E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park.

The 30th-ranked Bobcats fared four places better than their ranking, scoring 639 points to finish seven behind Wisconsin-Eau Claire and 14 points in front of 27th-place Calvin College.

Senior Jackson Donahue (Princeton, N.J.), running in his second NCAA Championship meet, completed his outstanding career as Bates' frontrunner in all seven races this season, leading the Bobcats in 70th place out of 294 individuals with a time of 24:38.0 over 8 kilometers.

Junior Ryan Smith (Westport, Conn.) finished second for Bates, 178th overall, in 25:18.0. Sophomore Sam Kartsonis (Harriton, Pa.) was close behind in 184th (25:21.4), followed in team scoring by sophomore Ned Farrington (Cohasset, Mass.) in 193rd (25:26.3) and senior John Mieszczanski (Chelmsford, Mass.) in 226th (25:42.7).

Junior standout Eli Boesch Dining (Concord, N.H.), who could not finish NCAA Regionals a week ago due to an injury, made the trip but did not toe the starting line, as the Bobcats instead went with their alternate, sophomore Colin Thoman (Westport, N.Y.), who finished 258th in 26:02.1 as Bates' sixth runner and first displacer. Sophomore Victor Kering (Eldoret, Kenya) finished 275th individually in 26:26.4, as Bates' second displacer.

"I'm extremely proud of how this team stepped up on the biggest stage, with less than ideal circumstances in the last part of our season," said head coach Curtis Johnson. "Everyone at the NCAA Championships wants to save their best for last, and we accomplished this despite making the tough decision to not race one of our vets [Boesch-Dining]."

The race represented Bates' 10th NCAA Championship meet as a program and its third straight, and its first with Johnson as head coach. Previous team trips to the Division III Championships netted the Bates men a 12th-place finish out of 39 teams in 1975; a program-best sixth place among 52 teams in 1977; 10th-place finish out of 24 teams in 1999; 19th place out of 24 in 2004; seventh place out of 32 in 2011; a program-best-tying sixth place out of 32 in 2012; 24th place out of 32 in 2013; 26th place out of 32 in 2018; and 32nd place in 2019. No NCAA Championships were held in 2020 due to COVID-19.

"Our seniors Donahue and Mieszczanski were strong and consistent all season-- this was key for us," said Johnson. "The welcome surprise was getting to the NCAA starting/finish line with a junior [Smith] and four sophomores [Farrington, Kartsonis, Kering, Thoman] in their first collegiate cross country season. The future looks bright for our Bobcats. They should all be proud of themselves and excited for what's to come."