Sept. 21, 2005

In the most recent rankings released on Sept. 19 by the NCAA Division-II Cross Country Coaches Association, the Wayne State University men's cross country team placed 11th nationally and second in the Great Lakes region, trailing Grand Valley State.

In their last race, the Warriors tied-for-first out of 22 schools at the 2005 Midwest Collegiate 8k hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Parkside on Sept. 17. Wayne State (44 points) tied Calvin College and finished ahead of North Central College (67 points), Wisconsin-LaCrosse (69 points) and Wisconsin-Oshkosh (171 points). Senior Justin Kessler (Ionia, Mich.) finished second with a time of 25:07, just one second behind the race leader.

Three other Warriors finished in the top seven: Junior Chris Mehay (New Baltimore, Mich./Anchor Bay) was fifth (25:33), senior Matt Fecht (Warren, Mich./Mott) was sixth (25:34) and redshirt freshman Abdullah Saleh (Dearborn, Mich./Fordson) was seventh (25:39). Sophomore Kevin Christensen (Battle Creek, Mich./Pennfield) was 24th in team scoring and 29th overall in a time of 26:23. Also competing was sophomore Lance Jones (Saranac, Mich.), who placed 50th (26:58).

The Warriors run an 8k on Sept. 24 in the seventh annual "Cross Country Only" National Championship hosted by Saint Louis University.