Cedarville, Ohio - The Arizona Christian University men's cross country team, coached by Caleb Lynch, totaled 226 points and placed fifth among 39 schools at the National Christian College Athletics Association (NCCAA) Men's Cross Country Championships on the Elvin R. King Course in Cedarville, Ohio, Saturday, November 10. 

A total of 281 runners completed the 8000-meter race in a dry, cool (55 degrees) day near Columbus, Ohio. ACU also placed fifth among 31 NCCAA Division I schools entered. ACU, which completed its 2012 season on Saturday, raced at the NCCAA National meet for the second time in its three-year men's cross country program history. The Firestorm placed 10th among 30 schools overall and 10th among 22 NCCAA Division I schools in the 2011 race at Cedarville. This season, ACU's top five finishers crossed the finish line within 53.22 seconds of each other and the top five placed between 26th and 62nd in the scoring. 

ACU also finished 20 points ahead of former perennial NAIA power Azusa Pacific, now moving to NCAA Division II, and three places ahead of the only nationally-ranked NAIA team in the field, Indiana Wesleyan (no. 20), and seven places ahead of Cedarville, which ranks 15th in the NCAA Division II coaches' poll. 

Oklahoma Christian University, Malone University (Ohio), and California Baptist University, all former NAIA cross country powers who have elected to join the NCAA Division II, finished first, second and third in the team standings, with Roberts Wesleyan College (N.Y.) fourth. Oklahoma Christian placed its top four runners in second, fourth, fifth and tenth places and totaled 41 points, and Malone runners placed first, eighth, ninth and 14th and totaled 54 points. Cal Baptist placed its top four among the first 17 runners in the race and totaled 84, and Roberts Wesleyan totaled 180 with runners in 13th and 16th places. 

Arizona Christian totaled 226, well ahead of Azusa Pacific's 246 points and Colorado Christian's 282. Indiana Wesleyan placed eighth with 301 points, and McMurry University (Tex.) placed ninth with 313. Rounding the team top 10 was Shorter University (Ga.) with 319 points, although Shorter featured the third and sixth place finishers in the race. 

Malone University sophomore Andrew Trusty won NCCAA individual champion honors with a time of 25:00.16, and Oklahoma Christian senior Geoffrey Njonjo placed second with a time of 25:10.84 over the 8000-meter course. Shorter senior Carlos Perez placed third with a time of 25;12.35, and was followed by Oklahoma Christian's Roberto Diaz and Brayden Barrientez who placed fourth and fifth with times of 25:18.85 and 25:20.71 respectively. Shorter senior Daniel Sorenson placed sixth in 25:22.17, and Cal Baptist senior Talal Khan finished seventh with a time of 25:22.44. Two Malone runners followed in eighth and ninth places, Ryan Roush and Mitch Williams, with times of 25:27.58 and 25:29.25 respectively, and David McWilliams from Oklahoma Christian rounded out the top ten with a time of 25:34.16. 

Running for Arizona Christian, senior Brooks Swigart (Phoenix, Ariz./Shadow Mountain HS/Paradise Valley CC), who led the Firestorm across the finish line in all nine of their races this season, completed the course in 26:33.68, good for 29th place overall among the 281 runners and 26th in the scoring. Swigart finished just four hundredths of one second behind the seventh and final Oklahoma Christian runner and less than two seconds behind a pair of Dallas Baptist finishers. 

ACU's number two finisher in seven of its nine competitions this season, junior Kyle Marshall (Phoenix, Ariz./Shadow Mountain HS/Paradise Valley CC) finished 32nd overall and 29th in the scoring with a time of 26:39.04, and freshman Chris Bates (Pico Rivera, Calif./Whittier Christian HS) placed 57th overall and 52nd in the scoring in his first NCCAA Championship meet with a time of 27:17:00. 

Junior Marcus Shisler (Phoenix, Ariz./Scottsdale Christian Academy/Paradise Valley CC), ACU's number four runner in the event, finished 62nd overall and 57th in the scoring with a time of 27:22.94, and senior Benjamin Johnson (Kigoma, Tanzania/Rift Valley Academy) placed 67th overall and 62nd in the scoring with a time of 27:26.54, rounding out ACU's top five.