Over the past five years, the Aquinas athletic department has continued its storied tradition of athletic success in the form of individual national championships, incredible postseason runs, WHAC championships, record-breaking performances, and a tremendous number of athletic and academic All-America honorees.
 
We wanted to provide our fans with an enjoyable look back at some of the best moments from all of our athletic programs since 2015. Over the next two months, we will highlight a few programs each week - 25 programs in total - and provide a reminder of why it's great to be an Aquinas Saint.
 
An outstanding team performance – in every sense of the word – was on display on November 3, 2018, when the Aquinas men's cross country team captured the WHAC Championship at Riverside Park in Grand Rapids. It was the 14th time in 19 years that the Saints finished the year as conference cross country champions and the way AQ earned the 2018 trophy was the story of the race.
 
Four nationally-ranked teams led a packed field of schools competing on the fall Saturday morning. #9 Cornerstone was the highest-ranked WHAC institution, with #12 Aquinas not being too far behind its crosstown rival. #18 Indiana Tech and #25 Madonna also came in with championship aspirations, but the Saints used a terrific group effort to notch the victory.
 
The top five Aquinas runners crossed the line within 24 seconds of each other and that group was essential to bringing the WHAC Championship back to campus. In his final WHAC race, senior Joey Ciaravino led AQ with a fifth-place finish of 25:54. Seven seconds later, junior Arik LaFave placed sixth, nearly stride for stride with sophomore Gannon Foley, who was two seconds behind LaFave and finished seventh.
 
The next runner to cross the line was junior Grayson Harding (six seconds after Foley) in eighth place and senior Adam Gizowski followed in Harding's steps with a ninth-place tally at the 26:18 mark. AQ also had a pair of runners (Luke Simonds, Evan Dunklee) finish 14th and 16th, respectively, with five more Saints placing inside the top-40.
 
Aquinas' five consecutive finishers from fifth through ninth place totaled a team score of 35 points, as the Saints topped Cornerstone by 15 points to clinch the 2018 team title. The conference championship was the 15th in AQ men's cross country history (all since 1997). Naturally, head coach Mike Wojciakowski earned WHAC Coach of the Year honors, along with the WHAC Champions of Character Coach accolade. 
 
Two weeks later, AQ traveled to Cedar Rapids, Iowa for the NAIA National Championships and earned an eighth-place finish, the best placement at Nationals since the 2012-14 Saints recorded three straight fifth-place finishes.

Next Moment: Friday, September 4th

Previous Moments:
Women's Volleyball: Saints Capture First WHAC Title in 22 Years