But Davis, who broke his own record set last week, was more excited about the meet’s implications for this season.

“I was ecstatic to hit [the automatic qualifying mark]…I think the whole team, as well as myself, is moving into great position for conference,” Davis said. “All of our indoor training up until this point is directed toward everyone hitting their best marks at conference, and I think that’s what’s going to happen.”

Graduate student Pierre Hoppenot, who has four victories in four appearances this season in the 200-meter dash, also set a new school mark, passing Antone Meaux’s 15-year-old record of 22.54 seconds. He regarded the accomplishment in a forward-thinking manner.

“Breaking the record is obviously a nice reminder that training hard pays off,” Hoppenot said. While Hoppenot acknowledged there isn’t a 200-meter dash event at nationals, he’s excited about the promising prospects of the 4×400 team that he is a part of.

“We have a good team…I am just trying to get faster and help my teammates get faster,” Hoppenot said.

The men’s team also had a strong showing in the 3,000-meter run, where junior Dave Spandorfer (8:32.80), sophomore Michael Burnstein (8:38:40), sophomore Tucker Hartley (8:45.07) and senior Matt Kruger (8:59.38) teamed up to sweep first place through fourth place. While Wash. U. fielded many strong performances, scores were not kept comparing the various competing schools.

The big event on the women’s side was the mile run, in which sophomore Liz Phillips fell 1.40 seconds short of making the provisional qualifying mark for the NCAA national championships in March. Her impressive 5:06.40 was also just 1.48 seconds short of a victory that went to Simpson College’s Catie Ellingson. Fellow sophomore Erica Jackey joined Phillips in the top three with a time of 5:08.05.

Other medalists for the women were graduate student co-captain Caitlin Hartsell, who grabbed third place in the 200-meter dash at 27.66 seconds, and sophomore Katie Hered, whose 3.05-meter pole vault was good for third place. Hartsell’s time was her season best, and Hered’s placed for the fourth time in the 2010 campaign.

For the men, senior Zach Griffen nabbed second in the 5,000-meter run (16:07.04), sophomore Tyler Jackson rounded out the top three in the 55-meter hurdles (7.90), and junior Scott Pettit pole vaulted 4.35 meters for a third-place finish. Davis also had a third-place finish in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.75 seconds.

The Bears will wrap up the regular season next weekend at the North Central College Meet in Naperville, Ill., before heading to Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., for the UAA indoor championship. “Everybody’s a little more focused now and pretty excited for the UAAs,” Hered said. “Individually, we have a lot of strong athletes. Hopefully, we can tie it all together.”

With additional reporting by Johann Qua Hiansen

With its third-place finish, the women received an at-large bid to the NCAA Championships on Nov. 22.

The women came into the meet with high expectations after placing first in the past three regional meets. However, the Lady Bears fell short by only nine points to the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and runner-up University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

Placing for the Lady Bears were sophomore Taryn Surtees, freshman Elizabeth Phillips and junior Molly Schlamb, who placed fifth, 12th and 20th respectively. All three runners received NCAA All-Midwest Region recognition Saturday.

Schlamb described this season as “incredible…because having graduated those awesome seniors, we’ve been given a challenge. We’ve gotten the chance to show that while we are young, we are tough, and that our expectations for success haven’t changed.”

Junior Hope Rathnam and graduate student Angela Hartman placed 32nd and 48th respectively.

“We have been through a lot of health issues, but we will be standing at the start line next Saturday with a healthy and prepared team. I really think we can finish anywhere from 2-12,” Head Coach Jeff Stiles said.

The men fell short to No. 2 ranked North Central College, who won the meet with 51 points. Sophomore Dave Spandorfer anchored the team, placing 41st with a time of 25:49.6.

“While we weren’t thrilled with our results, I think we can use this as a motivation to get better for indoor, outdoor and ultimately next cross country season,” Spandorfer said.

Also scoring for the bears were senior Nick Silverman, junior Alex Bearden, freshman Tucker Hartley and junior Matt Kruger, who placed 54th, 58th, 62nd and 77th, respectively.

“The season for the men was one of maturation. We return six of the seven guys who competed at Regionals. We have had some key members injured, but the ingredients are on campus to be a great team. I couldn’t have been more proud of our effort at regionals,” Stiles said.

“We ran hard. Some guys ran better than they expected, and some guys weren’t as far up as they had hoped, but we competed…we went out there and gave it our all,” Silverman said after racing in his final cross country race at Wash. U.

The women will continue their season next weekend after receiving an at-large berth to the Division III Cross Country Championship meet. The race will begin at noon on Saturday in Hanover, Ind.