Nov. 15, 2010

TEMPE – The NCAA released its selections for the 2010 NCAA Cross Country Championships with Arizona State University’s Ben Engelhardt earning an individual invitation to compete at the meet that will be held on Monday, November 22, in Terre Haute, Ind. Engelhardt will be making his third national cross country appearance and second in a row, but the first as an individual.

Engelhardt has been the team’s top finisher all season, posting the top finish in five of the six races he ran. In the six races he has run in 2010, Engelhardt has placed among the Top 23 in all six races with four Top 15 finishes on his resume, including his 13th-place finish at the NCAA West Region Championships over the weekend in Springfield, Ore., making him the fourth and final selection from the West among individuals. Prior to the regional race, he finished 14th in the 2010 Pac-10 Championships, marking the second year in a row he placed 14th and earned Second Team All-Pac-10 honors.

On October 16, Engelhardt ran in the NCAA Pre-National Race in Terre Haute on the same course used for the NCAA Championships and placed 18th overall in the 8,000m race. Prior to that, he posted a fifth-place showing at the Dave Murray Invitational in Tucson and a 12th-place finish at the Notre Dame Invitational in South Bend, Ind.

In his previous two NCAA Championship appearances, Engelhardt placed 201st (31:57.0) in 2009 and 163rd (31:39.0) in 2007. He will now race without his teammates at the national meet, becoming the first Sun Devil man to compete individually in the meet since Aaron Aguayo placed ninth overall in 2006.