East Lansing, Mich. -- The No. 24 nationally ranked Bates men's cross country team outpaced its seeding and finished 22nd out of 32 teams in the NCAA Division III National XC Championship Meet, held Saturday at Forest Akers East Golf Course on the campus of Michigan State University.

The Bobcats scored 543 points to finish 37 points behind No. 10 Emory College and 19 points in front of 23rd-place University of Wisconsin-Stout (ranked No. 27 nationally).

Senior Ryan Smith (Westport, Conn.), Bates' top finisher in last weekend's NCAA Regional Meet despite losing a shoe, led the Bobcats (with footwear intact) in 59th place out of 294 individuals with a time of 25:49.5 over 8K.

Junior Ned Farrington (Cohasset, Mass.) finished second for Bates (84th) in 26:00.2. Senior Eli Boesch Dining (Concord, N.H.) was close behind in 89th (26:01.7), followed in team scoring by juniors Sam Kartsonis (Narberth, Pa.) in 217th (26:48.0) and Victor Kering (Eldoret, Kenya) in 255th (27:14.3).

Sophomore Andrew Mottur (Rumford, R.I.) finished 256th in 27:14.9 as Bates' sixth runner and first displacer. Sophomore Krishna Kakani (Monroe, N.J.) placed 259th individually in 27:16.8 as Bates' second displacer.

The race represented Bates' 11th NCAA Championship meet as a program and its fourth straight. 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; 32nd place in 2019; and 26th out of 32 in 2021. No NCAA Championships were held in 2020 due to COVID-19.