Toledo Men’s Cross Country Captures Second Consecutive MAC Championship

Toledo Men's Cross Country Captures Second Consecutive MAC Championship

Junior Joad Martinho's first-place finish helped Toledo win its second consecutive Mid-American Conference Men's Cross Country Championship in Buffalo, New York, on Saturday.

The Rockets totaled 58 points, defeating second-place Miami by 22 points. The result marks the second conference championship for UT and the first time in program history with back-to-back crowns.

Martinho won the individual championship with a final time of 23:48.5. He becomes the third-straight individual champion from Toledo, joining Dennis Mutai (2023) and Dominic Serem (2024).

Junior Peter McMahon took sixth overall with a mark of 24:27.2 while junior Sibonelo Khumalo placed 10th (24:38.8), junior Loann Brelivet earned 11th (24:39.2) and junior Max Matolin tallied a 30th-place finish (25:20.6) for Toledo's 58 points.

First year Associate Head Coach Louis Vazquez was named MAC Men's Cross Country Coach of the Year for the first time. Martinho and McMahon each brought home First Team All-MAC honors while Khumalo and Brelivet were named to the Second Team All-MAC.

"It's really special to win today," Vazquez said. "Coming into today's race, we knew we were going to have to battle. We have quality guys on our team and they stepped up today and had a next-man-up mentality. Defending a team championship is tough, but they got the job done today to set the tone for the women's team to follow. Nice to walk away with both team titles and individual titles."

Toledo continues the championship portion of its season, heading the NCAA Great Lakes Regional in Evansville, Indiana on Friday, Nov. 14.