TEAM USA


Paul Merca


TEAM USA MEN GRAB CONTRIBUTIONS FROM PAUL MERCA


Led by a sixth place finish from Ben True (Hanover, N.H.), Team USA men grabbed one of the most surprising finishes in recent memory with a hard fought silver medal in the senior 12- kilometer (12 km) at the recent IAAF World Cross Country Championships at Myslecinek Park in Bydgoszcz, Poland. It was the first team medal in the 12-kilometer race earned by Team USA since 2001 in Ostend, Belgium, and the first silver medal won since 1984 in East Rutherford, N.J., when Pat Porter led the squad to a second place finish behind Ethiopia.


BEST FINISH SINCE 1984


True's sixth place finish was the highest at the world championships since Todd Williams was ninth in 1995 in Durham, England. When combined with the tenth place finish from USA Cross Country champion Chris Derrick (Portland, Ore.), the last time Team USA had two men finish in the top ten was in 1986 in Neuchatel, Switzerland, when Pat Porter finished sixth, and John Easker was tenth.


True, along with the rest of the squad, took a conservative approach on the first lap of the six-lap race, as he started out


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