WINNECONE, Wis. â€" Linfield senior Scott Gage capped off his cross country career in style as the top finisher from the Northwest Conference at the 2011 NCAA Cross Country Championships and the 124th overall runner to complete the eight-kilometer race held Saturday at the Lake Breeze Golf Club.

Gage, making his first appearance at the national meet, posted a time of 25 minutes, 26.36 seconds, averaging 5:08 per mile. He finished 20 spots ahead of Willamette’s Leo Castillo, who was the individual champion at the NWC Championships three weeks ago.

North Central (Ill.) won its third national title in three seasons, outscoring 2010 team champion Haverford 110-172. The Cardinals’ top finisher was Matthew Perez, who took fifth overall.

Senior Ben Sathre of St. Thomas (Minn.) was the overall individual champion. His time of 23:44.27 was five seconds faster than the runner-up.

A total of 179 men competed in the national championship meet, hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. Also representing the Northwest Conference were Alan DenAdel of Pacific Lutheran, Kevin Aubol of Willamette and Aaron Jenkins of Whitworth.