SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Jacob Curulewski of the Carthage men's cross country team competed in the 2025 NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships on Saturday morning at the Roger Milliken Center. It was another impressive showing for the senior out of Downer Grove, Ill., as Curulewski placed eighth overall and became the first All-American that the Carthage men's cross country program has had since joining the NCAA.
Curulewski opened the race back in 21st place after 1,000 meters, crossing the first split in 2:45.7, just 3.5 seconds off of the leader Jonathan Cobb of Lynchburg. By the 2,000-meter mark, Curulewski had moved up seven spots and was sitting in 14th place. The Carthage runner was also running stride for stride with fellow College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) representative BJ Sorg of North Central (Ill.), whom Curlewski defeated to claim the CCIW title back on Nov. 1. The duo crossed the 2,000-meter mark in 5:47, just two seconds off the lead pack.
Curulewski and Sorg continued to work together into the second quarter of the race, reaching the 3,000 meter mark in 8:52.7 with Curulewski moving up to 11th place and Sorg in 12th. Grant Matthai of Wis-La Crosse led at that point of the race with a time of 8:51.3. The CCIW duo slid back three positions at the halfway point of the race, with Mohammad Bati (Augsburg), Jayden Zywicki (Wis-La Crosse), and Kevin Turlington (St. Olaf) making big jumps in the lead pack. Curulewski, who had been running for 11:53.3, sat in 14th place with 4,000 meters to go in the race.
Curulewski crossed the 5,000-meter mark in 15:06.4, passing Turlington to reclaim 13th place. However, Turlington, along with Anthony Clark (Johns Hopkins) would pass Curulewski by the 6,000-meter mark to put the Carthage senior in 15th place at 18:18.9.
Curulewski began to make his move from 6,000 to 7,000 meters, passing five runners and moving into the top-10 for the first time in the race. Curulewski set in 10th place with a time of 21:18.2 with 1,000 meters left in the NCAA Championship race. Curulewski closed the final 1,000 meters in 2:37.9, his fastest 1,000-meter split of the day by nearly eight seconds and the fastest final split of the entire field. The senior passed Zywicki and Isaiah Hammerand (Wartburg) to claim eight place in a personal best time of 23:56.0 to earn NCAA All-American honors for the first time in program history.
While Curulewski is the first student-athlete to earn All-American honors since Carthage joined the NCAA, he joins two Carthage student-athletes who earned NAIA All-American honors for Carthage. Al Stiefel earned All-America recognition with an eighth place finish in 1967, and Joe McGhee earned the honors with a 15th place finish in 1973.
"It's hard to put into words what Jacob accomplished on the day, this season, and his four years at Carthage," said Head Coach Josh Henry. "He has been key to the resurgence of our program over the last four years with a lot of incredible team and individual accomplishments. The only thing I keep coming back to when I reflect on his time with us is heart. I don't think anyone has more heart out there and that can be best described by one stat from today. Jacob had the fastest K split of anyone in the race today. It was the final 1,000m of the race…uphill. He's such a tough kid who runs with so much heart and it's just been such a fun ride. I'm so proud of him and happy he's able to close his Carthage Cross Country career off with the best race of his life. I often tell our guys to cherish every moment because you rarely capture that Disney storybook ending. We got one here today."
The 2025 Carthage cross country season has concluded. The Firebirds will look ahead to the indoor track & field season, which kicks off on Dec. 6 as Carthage hosts the Forever Red Alumni Classic at the Tarble Athletic and Recreation Center. For more information, visit athletics.carthage.edu.
