Clinton, N.Y. -- The No. 27 nationally ranked Bates men's cross country team edged Tufts by one point to take fifth place out of 11 teams Saturday at the NESCAC Championship (hosted by Hamilton). Senior Eli Boesch Dining paced the Bobcats with a 13th-place finish for the garnet and white.

Bates tallied 140 points trailing only No. 30 Connecticut College (126 points), No. 13 Middlebury (106), No. 24 Colby (104), and No. 7 Williams (41) as the Ephs take 2022 NESCAC crown.

Boesch Dining (Concord, N.H.) covered the 8-kilometer Hamilton College XC Course in 24:39.6, leading the Bobcats for the second time this season.

Ryan Smith (Sr.-Westport, Conn.) (16th, 24:44.4), Victor Kering (Jr.-Eldoret, Kenya) (22nd, 24:56.0), Ned Farrington (Jr.-Cohasset, Mass.) (41st, 25:39.8), and Sam Kartsonis (Jr.-Harriton, Pa.) rounded out the Bates team scoring. Sophomores Andrew Mottur (Rumford, R.I.) placed 51st overall in 25:51.6 and Krishna Kakani (Monroe, N.J.) placed 52nd at 25:51.8 to serve as Bates' two scoring displacers.

Ben Huston (So.-Vergennes, Vt.) (69th, 26:01.6), Nat Benioff (So.-Narberth, Pa.) (83rd, 26:24.2), Aidan Rooney (So.-Bay Shore, N.Y.) (89th, 26:30.0), Cam Stathos (So.-Wellesley, Mass.) (96th, 26:37.1), Clem Taylor-Roth (Sr.-Juneau, Alaska) (97th, 26:41.6), Henry Welch (So.-Istanbul, Turkey) (105th, 26:48.9), and Timothy O'Neill (Jr.-New York, N.Y.) (137th, 27:46.4) also crossed the line for the Bobcats.

Bates finished among the top half the conference's 11 teams for the fifth consecutive NESCAC Championship meet, dating to 2017.

The Bobcats will next compete in the NCAA East Region Championships, held Saturday Nov. 12 on the campus of Bowdoin College (Brunswick, Maine). The women's race begins at 11am, followed by the men's race at noon.