• Freshman Jordan King leads DMACC with a 58^th-place finish
• Freshmen Will Thompson and Alejandro Bernal finish 63^rd and 74^th respectively
• Freshmen Zachary Niederklopfer and Ray Gearhart are 78^th and 88^th respectively

The DMACC men's cross country team came away with an 11^th-place finish in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) 2023 Division II National Championships November 11 at Huntsville, Ala.

Freshman Jordan King of Boone topped DMACC with a 58^th-place finish as the Bears scored 361 points. Lansing Community College (LCC) took the team championship with 73 points and Nathan Pestka of Paradise Valley Community College (PVCC) won individual honors with a time of 24 minutes, 49 seconds over the 8K course.

King was 58^th in 27:06 and he improved his position throughout the race. He was 116^th at the 1.6K mark, 90^th at the 4.6K mark and 75^th at the 6.2K mark.

DMACC got a 63^rd-place finish from freshman Will Thompson of West Des Moines and a 74^th-place finish from freshman Alejandro Bernal of Sibley. Thompson posted a time of 27:17 and Bernal finished in 27:26.

Both runners improved their positions throughout the race. Thompson was 116^th at the 1.6K mark, 92^nd at the 4.6K mark and 81^st at the 6.2K mark. Bernal was 126^th at the 1.6K mark and 94^th at the 4.6K mark. He slipped to 95^th at the 6.2K mark before finishing 74^th.

Freshmen Zachary Niederklopfer of Des Moines and Ray Gearhart of Oelwein rounded out DMACC's scoring. Niederklopfer was 78^th with a time of 27:28 and Gearhart finished in 88^th place with a time of 27:37. Niederklopfer improved from 109^th at the 1.6K mark to 76^th at the 6.2K mark before finishing 78^th. Gearhart improved throughout the race, moving from 132^nd at the 1.6K mark to 112^th at the 4.6K mark. He was 105^th at the 6.2K mark.

Freshman Grant Harrison of Des Moines closed out DMACC's performance by finishing in 105^th place. His best move came early in the race when he improved from 148^th at the 1.6K mark to 116^th at the 4.6K mark.

Like the DMACC women's cross country team, the DMACC men's cross country team turned in the best performance of the four Iowa community college teams entered in the race. North Iowa Area Community College (NIACC) was 15^th, Southeastern Community College (SECC) was 16^th and Hawkeye Community College (HCC) finished 30^th.

The meet closed out the season for the DMACC men's Cross Country Team.