SPARTANBURG, S.C. – For the second straight year,
Mohammed Bati (SR, Dodola,Ethiopia/GAP School) finished second at the NCAA Division III Men's Cross Country National Championships, shattering his 8,000-meter school record in the process, on Saturday morning at the Roger Millikin Center.
MOHAMMED BATI
• Bati finished the 291-runner race in 23.39.6, 4.6 seconds behind national titlist Emmanuel Leblond of Johns Hopkins (Md.). Bati entered the final 1,000 meters of the race contending for the lead with Leblond, who pulled in front in the final 400 meters to claim the victory.
• Bati worked his way to the front in the early stages of the race, moving from 137th after the first 1,000 meters to a spot in the lead group by the halfway mark. By the 5K mark, the lead group had shrunk to five runners, and going into the final 1,000 meters, the title race was a two-person battle between Bati and Leblond. Bati finished with his best 1,000-meter split of the race, at 2:46.2.
• He shattered his school record for the 8,000-meter men's cross country distance by 15 seconds with the finish in his final collegiate race, breaking his old mark of 23:54.6, set at last year's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships.
• The first Augsburg men's cross country runner to qualify for three national meets, Bati finished as a two-time All-American. It marked the seventh time an Auggie men's runner has reached the national meet. Brent Haglund qualified for two national meets (2008, 2009), Micheale Tesema competed at the national meet in 2012, and Dan Spies competed at the 1996 national meet.
• Bati finished in second place in last year's national championships with a 24:03.7 time, and 168th in the 2022 national meet in 26:27.4.
• Bati finished his collegiate career as perhaps the best men's cross country runner in MIAC history. Earlier this year, he became the first men's cross country runner in conference history to win four MIAC titles, earning MIAC Men's Cross Country Athlete of the Year honors for the fourth straight year.
• He won 19 of his 28 career cross country races as an Auggie, including 17 wins in his 25 races at the 8,000-meter distance. He recorded 20 sub-25-minute 8K times in his career and two times under 24 minutes.
