Sauvola will make second trip to national championship, earns all-region

2016 NCAA Division III Midwest Regional Championship results | NCAA National Information

WINNECONNE (November 12, 2016) - Devin Sauvola ran his best race of the season in placing 16th at the NCAA Division III Midwest Regional Championship at Lake Breeze Golf Course and qualified to the NCAA championship next weekend in Louisville, Ky.

Sauvola competed at the national championship in 2014 when the entire team qualified. During his sophomore season, Sauvola finished 150th of 280 runners.  This year, Sauvola qualified as the seventh and final individual qualifying runner out of the Midwest Regional. Fifty-six individuals, the first seven student-athletes from each region who are not a part of a qualifying team, were selected to participate in each championship.

Sauvola, who took last season off from competition, finished the 2016 regional race in a time of 25-minutes, 8.6-seconds on the 8-kilometer course, earning all-Midwest Region honors. Sauvola's previous best time of the season was 25:20.20, two weeks ago at the WIAC Championship. The regional time is in the top 15 all-time for a Stout runner in the 8-kilometer.

Tyler Ellefson finished 45th (25:46.10) as the Blue Devils finished 10th of 33 teams. Stout has been ranked 10th in the region for the majority of the season.

Alec Boes was 66th (26:14.4), Mike Friedman was 83rd (26:28.0), Gus Metzdorff was 98th (25:43.6), David Rosenlund was 11th (26:57.4) and Zach Wickham was 162nd (28:11.2).

Thirty-two teams were selected to participate in the national championship. The top two, sevenperson teams automatically qualified from each of the eight regions, for a total of 16 teams. Sixteen additional teams were selected at-large. Midwest Regional champion North Central College and second place UW-Eau Claire earned the automatic berths. UW-La Crosse and Washington University of St. Louis received the at-large bids.

At the 2014 national meet, Sauvola finished in a time of 25:36.5 on the Ohio course. The NCAA Division III Cross Country Championship will be hosted by Spalding University and the Louisville Sports Commission Saturday, Nov. 19 at E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Ky. The women's race will begin at 11 a.m. Eastern time (10 a.m. Central)  followed by the men's race at Noon Eastern time (11 a.m. Central).