LOCK HAVEN, PA - The Johns Hopkins men's cross country team finished as the runner-up at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regionals Saturday afternoon, further solidifying their case for a bid to next weekend's NCAA National Championship. All seven of Hopkins finishers placed in the top 35 runners to earn All-Region recognition, marking the third straight year the Jays have had all of their participants earn the honor. This is also the fourth consecutive season they have finished as the runner-up.
 
Gavin McElhennon led the way for the Hopkins with a second-place finish in the 8K. The senior — who won the event a season ago — finished just 1.2 seconds behind the winner with a time of 24:41.2 to narrowly miss out on the repeat. McElhennon made his push between the 3.6k and 5k marker, climbing six spots and eventually taking first place with just over one kilometer to go, but was ultimately passed in the home stretch.
 
Next to cross the line were a trio of Jays runners in Charles Teeter, Jonas Larson and Thomas Li. The group all finished within one second off each other, crossing the line in 14^th (24:54.2), 15^th (24:54.3) and 16^th (24:54.8). Finishing close behind was Sean Enright, who took home 19^th with a time of 25:09.2.
 
The final two Hopkins runners to finish were Connor Oiler and Bryce Thalheimer, who took 28^th (25:36.6) and 29^th (25:7.2) to make the Jays one of just three programs competing — 31 schools took part in the race — to place all of its runners in the top 30.
 
Carnegie Mellon took home first with a meet-best 19 points, with Hopkins (66) and Marywood (80) rounding out the podium. A large gap formed between the top three and the remaining programs, with Dickinson (157) and Misericordia (209) completing the event's top five.
 
Next up for the Jays is the NCAA Championships, where they will look to build off their 12^th-place finish from a season ago. The men's 8K is scheduled to start at 11 a.m.