Colo. College's Brainerd wins West Regional; Trinity's Wright has strong regional showing

SUWANEE, Ga. - Colorado College sophomore Jackson Brainerd, by running a 25:26 8K, won the 2009 NCAA West Regional championship. With the win Brainerd automatically qualifies for next week's NCAA Division III National Championship in Cleveland, Ohio.

Colorado College posted a third-place overall team finish. Brainerd's teammates, juniors Daniel Kraft and Andrew Wagner tallied top-20 finishes by finishing 18th and 19th respectively.

Meanwhile, in the South Region, Trinity University's Bryant Wright posted a top-10 finish by running a 27:21 8K to finish seventh overall. Centre College's Jason Parks finished just ahead of Wright by running a 27:12. Wright and Parks both earned automatic qualifiers into the NCAA Championship next week.

Other SCAC student-athletes that posted top-20 times included Rhodes College's Chris Moore (12th, 27:21), Trinity's Chass Armstrong (14th, 27:43), Centre's Clinton Cahall (15th, 27:45) and Sewanee: The University of the South's Chris Hague (17th, 27:55). Moore was the only other men's individual to qualify for next weeks' NCAA Championship.

Trinity earned a third place overall team finish in the South Region but did not earn a team at-large berth  in the national championship meet next week. Centre placed sixth and Rhodes finished seventh.

Colorado College, however, did receive a team at-large berth into the NCAA Championship. The Tigers were the only SCAC team selected to the race.

DePauw Univeristy's Peter Richard tallied a top-50 finish at the Great Lakes regional. Richard ran a 26:59 to earn a 42nd place finish. The Tigers finished 11th out of 36 teams in a very competitive region.

For complete results and recaps from the 2009 NCAA Division III regional championships visit the following sites:

South Region | Great Lakes Region | West Region