LOCH HAVEN, PA – Junior Gavin McElhennon became Johns Hopkins' first NCAA Regional champion since 1991 to help lead the Blue Jays to a runner-up finish at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships at Loch Haven University Saturday afternoon.   The runner-up finish is the third straight for Johns Hopkins, which has also now placed in the top three at six consecutive NCAA Regional Championship meets.
 
Carnegie Mellon won the team title with 22 points with the Blue Jays following in second with 60.  Messiah (113 points), Dickinson (126) and Marywood (155) rounded out the top five in the team scoring in the 32-team field.
 
At the 6.8k mark, McElhennon was running in a virtual dead heat with Carnegie Mellon's Elijah Sech and Colin McLaughlin as all three hit that mark at 21:35.  Over the last 1.2k, McElhennon pulled away and eventually crossed in 25:02.8 with Sech placing second just over seven seconds later (25:09.9).  With his title, McElhennon becomes the first regional champion for the Blue Jays since John Robinson in 1991.
 
The Blue Jays wrapped up their runner-up finish on the strength of their next four scoring runners, who all placed between ninth and 22^nd and finished within 30 seconds of each other.  Arthur Beyer led the way in that pack with a ninth-place finish (25:27.4) and he was followed closely by Jonas Larson, who clocked in at 25:32.1 to place 11^th.  Matthew Kleiman (17^th / 25:44.7) and Charlie Teeter (22^nd / 25:57.3) rounded out the scoring runners for the Blue Jays and Rowan Cassidy (25^th / 25:59.5) and Bryce Thalheimer (32^nd / 26:26.7) also grabbed all-region honors with top 35 finishes.
 
Carnegie Mellon earns an automatic bid to the upcoming NCAA Championships with its regional title, while the Blue Jays will learn their NCAA fate on Sunday when the NCAA announces the teams that receive at-large bids to the championship.