TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Jake Brophy (Sr., New Hope, Pa.) wrapped up his stellar collegiate cross country career on Saturday with action at the 2019 NCAA Championship. Racing on the 10k course at the Lavern Gibson Cross Country Course, Brophy turned in a career-best 126th-place finish.
 
Competing against a field of 251 runners, Brophy started off his race near the front of the field as he clocked in 58th at the 3K checkpoint with a time of 9:01.9, 8.7 seconds behind the Virginia Tech's Peter Seufer, who was first at that point.
 
Over the next 2,000 meters, Brophy fell back 15 spots to 73rd place as his time at the 5K marker was 15:35.0. His pack of positions 59 through 75 were separated by just 4.7 seconds.
 
In the second half of the rest, the Mids' senior team captain settled into the middle of the pack as he crossed the 8K checkpoint in 111th place with a time of 25:34.7 before closing out the 10k race in 126th at 32:09.9. He was just over 10 seconds out placing in the top-100 as Tulsa's Isaac Akers crossed the finish line at 31:59.3; Akers was the 100th runner to complete the grueling competition on Saturday that was run in the rain with temperatures in the mid-30's.
 
This is Brophy's best personal finish at the season-ending national meet as he previous placed 154th at the 2016 NCAA Championship and 167th at the 2017 NCAA Championship.
 
"Jake has had a great, great season," remarked head coach Aaron Lanzel. "He was the epitome of consistency and grit for the team, never having a bad day when we needed him. All of us hoped he had some extra juice for one last race for himself today. He got out exactly how he wanted to, but didn't have the legs when it came time to match the national field. I'm very happy for all of the success he got to share with the team this year, and will surely have some more to cap off his senior year with indoor and outdoor track."
 
Individually, Iowa State's Edwin Kurgat won the race with a time of 30:32.7, 4.4 seconds ahead of second-place Joe Klecker of Colorado. In the team standings, BYU was the class of the 31-team field with 109 combined points. Northern Arizona was second with 163 points.