Results

MANSFIELD, Pa. (Nov. 5) – The Vulcans recorded their best finish in nearly a decade at the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Championships on Saturday morning, as they placed fourth in the team standings behind four top-25 runners.

The California (PA) men's cross country team finished with 110 points at the league meet hosted by Mansfield at Lamb's Creek. The Vulcans recorded their lowest point total in recent program history (since 2008). Cal, which placed 11th in the team standings at last year's race, most recently finished fourth at the PSAC Championships in 2013 when they boasted the individual runner-up. Edinboro captured its fifth-consecutive conference title after totaling 33 points. Shippensburg placed second in the team standings with 55 points and Slippery Rock ranked third with 86 points.

Redshirt freshman Jonathan Thrush (Temple, Pa./Muhlenberg) crossed the finish line in third place after registering a time of 25 minutes, 14.2 seconds. He posted the highest individual finish since Aaron Dinzeo claimed the league title in 2014 after placing second the previous fall. Thrush earned All-PSAC First-Team status for the second time in his career, as he finished fourth at the league championships held in March of 2020. The 5-foot-10 redshirt freshman ranked outside the top 10 at the initial two-kilometer split before climbing to third by the six-kilometer marker.

Sophomore Ian Zimmerman (Bedford, Pa./Northern Bedford County) finished second on the team and 17th overall with a time of 25:56.4 on Saturday. He received All-PSAC Second-Team honors for a consecutive year while posting an average pace of 5:14 over the eight-kilometer course.

Junior Noah Bernarding (Cochranton, Pa./Cochranton) and senior Mason Jobe (Greensburg, Pa./Greensburg Salem) registered back-to-back, top-25 finishes. Bernarding crossed the finish line in 26:05.9 to finish in 24th place and Jobe posted a time of 26:07.2 to place 25th overall in a field of 145-plus runners. Bernarding garnered All-PSAC Second-Team laurels for the third-straight year, while Jobe repeated as an All-PSAC Second-Team honoree.

Cal featured four All-PSAC runners for the first time in program history on Saturday.

Freshman Kolby Kent (Roscoe, Pa./California) rounded out the team scorers at the league championships with a time of 26:52.0 to finish in 43rd place. Fellow freshmen Amin Contreras (Frederick, Md./Governor Thomas Jefferson) and Bill Folmer (Pittsburgh, Pa./Penn Hills) also competed at the conference meet on Saturday.  Contreras posted a time of 28:46.4 and Folmer finished the race in 30:37.9.

Edinboro senior Ward Ries earned the individual conference title by 2.4 seconds with a time of 25:05.0.

The Vulcans return to action at the NCAA Regional Championships on Nov. 19 with the event again being held at Lamb's Creek in Mansfield, Pennsylvania.