University of St. Thomas Athletics

Program Overview

MXC Program overview

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Points of Pride

  • Two team NCAA D-III championships (1984, 1986) with 10 top-5 team finishes nationally
  • Two individual NCAA D-III champions, 17 individual MIAC champs
  • Qualified a team to nationals 27 times in 45 years, with 31 All-America honors
  • Won a league-best 24 MIAC conference team championships
  • Three CoSIDA Academic All-Americans since 2015
  • Three team appearances at NCAA meet since 2014

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In fall 2021 St. Thomas became the first institution to make a direct move in all sports from NCAA D-III into D-I athletics.

Tommie Men's Cross Country is one of 18 sports that competes in The Summit League. St. Thomas teams also compete in the Pioneer Football League; the WCHA women’s hockey league; and the Central Collegiate Hockey Association for men’s hockey. 

Pete Wareham, a three-time XC All-American as a Tommie competitor, starts his 30th season as head coach in fall 2021.

In the Toms' inaugural season in Division I running in fall 2021, Wareham's athletes placed second out of eight teams at the Summit League Championships. Redshirt sophomore Zach Haire placed fourth out of 62 runners to make first-team all-conference. In October 2021 at the Bradley Pink Classic meet, the Toms set a program record with five runners breaking 25:00 for 8,000 meters as they placed sixth out of 31 teams.


Division III Era

The St. Thomas men’s cross-country program built a tradition of excellence over the last four-plus decades. The Tommies won NCAA Division III titles in 1984 and 1986 and finished in the top 20 at the D-III national meet 22 times.

Tommie distance runners have won nine individual D-III national titles in either cross country, or in track and field at 800, 1,500, 5,000 or 10,000 meters, or the 3,000-meter steeplechase.

Nic Manciu was the 1982 national XC champion and was a two-time NCAA 10,000-meter champ in track. Ben Sathre was the 2011 NCAA cross country champ.
Individually, St. Thomas runners have earned cross-country All-American honors on 31 occasions.

Their 16 MIAC conference team titles included a streak of 10 in a row from 1984-93 under the leadership Coach Larry "Doc" Russ and current coach Wareham. The Tommies placed first, second or third in the MIAC for 32 consecutive seasons from 1973-2004.

At the conference level, individual Tommies raced to top-15 finishes and All-MIAC honors more than 150 times since 1976 -- more than any other conference school.

The 2001 Tommies repeated as MIAC champions and placed fifth at nationals. Led by individual champion Brian Preus, a junior, St. Thomas put three runners in the top five and six in the top 15 to win the 2001 MIAC championship with 26 points -- one of the lowest team scores in MIAC history. Preus and senior Nick Maddox went on to earn All-America honors with top-35 finishes at nationals. Preus placed 10th in the 2002 nationals to repeat as All-American and led St. Thomas to an 18th-place finish. St. Thomas also won the 2003 MIAC championship.

The 2009 Tommies qualified for the NCAA meet and placed 18th out of 32 teams. Wareham was named Central Region Men's Cross Country Coach of the Year by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).

In both 2010 and 2011, Tommies All-American distance man Ben Sathre was named the Men’s Cross Country Central Region Athlete of the Year. Sathre repeated as Division III Cross Country All-American in the men’s 8,000 meters race by finishing second overall in the national field of 279 runners. Sathre’s time of 24:23 was just one second behind the champion. Sathre came back as a senior and won the 2011 NCAA individual title and claimed his third All-America honor as he capped an unbeaten fall season.

Three of their last six D-III teams placed in the top three of the MIAC Championships and advanced to the NCAA Division III meet after receiving at-large berths.