The Indiana State men's cross country team finished 12th of the 31 teams at the NCAA Division I Great Lakes Regional Championship Saturday in Toledo, Ohio.

Senior Craig Padgett placed 16th of the 211 runners with a time of 30:38.8, earning him his second All-Region recognition and breaking the 12-year-old record of Jason Gunn. Gunn ran the 10k 30:44 in 1999 at the Great Lakes Region Championships, placing 8th.

"Craig ran the strategy we talked about and planed out, and executed it," head coach John McNichols said. "He just kept up to the people we had targeted out, primarily the IU team. I'm sure he was in a considerable amount of racing discomfort and pain, but was strong enough to hold on and push through."

Padgett just missed the opportunity to compete at the NCAA Divison I National Championships.

Thirty-six individuals, the top four not on qualifying teams in each of the nine regions, automatically qualified while the next two highest places in all the regions additionally qualified.  His time was two seconds short of the at-large selection.

The Sycamore regional team also included senior Jeremiah Vaughan, who finished 69th with a time of 31:50, junior Albaro Escalera was 75th in 32:00, junior Dustin Betz was 81st in 32:07, freshman Tristan Selby was 93rd in 32:18, senior Tyler Kent was 99th in 32:25, and freshman Drew Gambill was 138th in 33:10.

"Our target is always the top ten, and this year we were twelfth," McNichols said. "I think we left with a very neutral note; it wasn't exactly what we wanted."

The Sycamore men scored a total of 334 points, finishing higher than 19 competitive teams such as Akron, Toledo, and Kent State. Wisconsin won the meet with 50 points, and Indiana finished second with 70.

"Overall, everybody would agree this was a good team. They put it together when they needed to at [the MVC conference]. And now we're headed to the track," McNichols said.

Terre Haute will be hosting 31 teams that qualified for the NCAA Division I National Championships. The men's race will begin at approximately 12:08 p.m.  followed by the women's race at approximately 12:58 p.m. on Monday at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course located at the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center.