The Association of Division III Independents released its All-Independent Teams and Awards on November 14. The Illinois Tech Men’s Cross Country team had one player earn a spot on the First Team, Cole Dammeier.

Dammeier’s award comes after earning USCAA Second Team All-American honors at a November 10 National Championship race, where he placed ninth with a time of 27:33.14. Dammeier led the Scarlet Hawks team all year for 2017–18, finishing the year with two top-15 placements. He never finished below 48th in the field. He also placed in the top 30 five times. The north suburban native of Arlington Heights, Illinois, had a season-best time of 27:06.2 at the Aurora University Spartan Classic in September.

The Illinois Tech men’s cross country team finished 11th out of 22 teams at the USCAA National Championships on November 10.