ROCHESTER, NY – With 600 meters left, Roberts Wesleyan’s Owen White dug deep and pulled away from Caldwell’s Tilak Datta to win the 2024 NCAA Division II East Region Cross Country Championship 10k race and lead the Redhawks to a second-place team finish and, with that, an automatic bid for the 2024 NCAA Division II Championship at Haggin Oaks Golf Complex in Sacramento, CA on November 23 as one of the top three teams to finish in the region… and they did it on their home course, at the Matt St. James Cross Country Trail in Rochester, NY on Saturday morning. 

Results

White pulled away at the end and extended his index finger as he crossed the finish line in 31:15.1, besting Datto by six seconds to become the first man from Roberts Wesleyan to win an NCAA regional title in cross country.

"It was a challenge for Owen, and I think that it makes it that much sweeter because he had to work for it,” said Roberts Wesleyan’s Director of Cross Country & Track and Field Andrew Dorr.

"I had to dig really deep to find something that I didn't know that I had,” added White.

Led by White’s first-place overall finish in the field of 140, the Redhawks placed four runners in the top 20 to take the runner-up spot to Southern Connecticut State (54) with 65 points. Senior Zachary Hall placed third (31:27.3) while sophomore Caleb Belanger (14th, 32:10.5) and freshmen Jakob Zibbel (22nd, 32:20.4) and Trevor Heitkamp (31st, 32:45.0) rounded out the Redhawks’ scorers. Freshman Juvenal Diaz-Cortes (51st, 33:25.4) and Nathan Demarest (58th, 33:44.2) finished as RWU’s No. 6 and No. 7 runners. 

Also representing the ECC were Daemen (11th, 269 points), Molloy (14th, 307 points), and St. Thomas Aquinas 17th, 463 points).

In all, seven ECC student-athletes earned NCAA All-Region honors: Owen White (RWU, 1st), Zachary Hall (RWU, 3rd), Henry Smith (DYU, 10th), Caleb Belanger (RWU, 14th), John Ray (QC, 21st), Jakob Zibbel (RWU, 22nd), and Peter Baggatine (MOL, 25th).