MEADVILLE — A sore back provided a setback to Ben Mourer's cross country season at Allegheny College last fall.

But the Karns City graduate refused to let it set back the overdue success of the Gators' overall team.

Mourer just missed qualifying for NCAADivision IIItrack nationals in the 5,000 meters last spring, easily running the provisional time for that event. He wound up ranked 18th nationally, however, and only the top 15 were invited to the meet.

"I missed out by a tenth of a second,"Mourer said. "That comes out to a foot and a half over a 3.1-mile race. ... I was a foot and a half too slow. That was hard to take."

When cross country season started, Mourer developed soreness in his back, likely related to a stress fracture in his hip that was discovered 18 months earlier.

Allegheny coach Bill Ross decided to rest Mourer from the middle of September until late October, hoping to get him back for a postseason run.

"The same thing happened to Ben last cross country season,"Ross said. "It's a mystery to me. His back flares up at times. Last year, we let him try to run through it and wound up not having him available for the postseason meets.

"I wasn't going to let that happen this time around."

Without Mourer last postseason, Allegheny still qualified for the national meet, but it finished dead last.

"You need your best five runners on the course for a national meet and we didn't have that,"Ross said. "We really missed Ben."

Mourer returned to action just before the North Coast Athletic Conference meet this season, which Allegheny won for the third straight year.

He still wasn't at 100 percent physically, but he was going to run anyway.

"I did a lot of bike work while I was off, but you still lose some (endurance),"Mourer said. "I ran at maybe 80 percent when I came back, but 80 percent was better than not having me out there at all."

The Division IIInational meet was held in Wilmington, Ohio, on a muddy course with numerous puddles of water.

The Gators finished third as a team — the best finish in school history — and had two runners finish among the top 20 in the 279-runner field. Mourer wound up 105th with a time of 28 minutes, 35 seconds.

"That was the worst course I've seen in terms of condition,"Ross said. "But it probably helped us. Running in Western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio, we've run on muddy courses before.

"Teams from California and warmer weather areas — you could tell they were bothered by the track."

The Division IIIindividual champion, Macharia Yuot of Widener College, ran a 26:31.

"I've run faster times than that,"Mourer said. "That shows how slow the course was. My time at nationals was my slowest since I was a freshman."

A history major, Mourer is in his senior year at Allegheny. He plans to graduate in December and is going to run cross country again next fall. He has another year of eligibility after missing a season with the stress fracture.

Mourer already is a two-year captain at Allegheny.

"Our team should be even better next year and I want to help us take a shot at winning the national championship,"Mourer said.

"My freshman year here, we didn't even win our conference. Then we won the NCAC, but didn't qualify for nationals. Then we make nationals last year and finish last. Then we get third this year and get to stand on the podium. The progression has been an awesome thing to be a part of."