SAN ANTONIO — Southwestern men's cross country runner Noah Dennis led the Pirates to a fourth-place finish at the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Championship Meet. 

Dennis paced Southwestern with a time of 26:41.7, finishing with a 5:22.2 mile pace to place 12th and earn All-SCAC honors for a second consecutive year. He was one of two Pirates to place in the top 20. 

"I'm super proud of Noah for earning all-conference for us for the second year in a row. He's certainly been a big-time leader for us all season," Southwestern head cross country coach Steven Cary says. "The guys ran well this morning with one of the best performances we've had all season. 

C.P. Shaulis record a personal best in the 8K, clocking in at 27:08.9 to finish 18th. Xander Bailey finished just fractions of a second off his top performance of 27:36.2 set at the Sept. 24 Concordia Classic, recording a time of 27:36.9 to place 26th. Brian Armijo followed with a time of 28:00.5, placing 30th, Nathan Botros crossed the finish line at 28:59.5 to place 36th, and Doug Ginsberg ran a 29:07.4 to place 40th. Luke Markey rounded out Southwestern's top seven with a time of 29:43.3, finishing 43rd. 

Andrew Cutting finished in 30:44.5 to place 51st, and Gannon Hall placed 55th with a time of 31:59.3. Colorado College won the SCAC Championship for the third year in a row, led by individual back-to-back winner Josh Fry. Trinity finished second, followed by St. Thomas. 

"Overall, there were some bright spots this morning. I thought C.P. ran the race of his collegiate career, and that was huge for us. Xander also had an outstanding performance. Both of those guys were key for us to finish as well as we did," Cary says. "We're definitely not where we want to be, and we have to get better, but this is a group that has raised the standard for this program. We'll take the positives from today, learn from the things we didn't do well, and then apply them to the next race. The guys are looking forward to region in two weeks." 

Southwestern will travel to Claremont, Calif., to compete in the NCAA Division III West Regionals hosted by Occidental on Saturday, Nov. 13.