BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – History … made.
 
"Tonight's headline was the cherry on top of a long twelve weeks of anticipation and dedication," junior David Ribich said. "But it didn't come easy."
 
"I couldn't, in any scenario, have chosen a better group of guys to win a national championship," sophomore Dustin Nading said.
 
"This championship wasn't earned tonight, it was earned in December when campus was empty and we were the only ones there," junior AJ Holmberg said.
 
"I'll be sitting in a retirement home reminiscing and telling the story about the time we won the national championship and the set the national record," junior Josh Dempsey said.
 
In a photo finish on Friday night, the Western Oregon men's Distance Medley Relay team was crowned national champions during day two action at the 2017 NCAA Division II Indoor National Championships at the Birmingham Crossplex.
 
The Wolves edged defending champion Adams State by .001 seconds in a school, Great Northwest Athletic Conference and NCAA Division II Indoor record time of 9:40.144.
 
Nading bolted to the front of the pack during the opening 1,200-meter section. After leading multiple laps, he passed the baton to Holmberg with the Wolves in second place after running 2:57.51. Holmberg closed the gap to less than one-tenth of a second behind Adams State with a 48.70 split in the 400 meters.
 
Dempsey kept pace in the 800-meter section at 1:51.90 after a blistering 1:49.90 from Colorado State Pueblo's Devundrick Walker put the Thurnderwolves in the lead heading into the final leg of the relay.
 
Ribich took the baton from Dempsey and immediately took the race lead with the task of keeping the Wolves in front. Knowing the very talented Oliver Aitchson from Adams State was lurking, Ribich kicked it into high gear over the final lap to hold off the charging Aitchson in the closest finish to a race thus far in the meet (9:40.144 to 9:40.145).
 
On Saturday in the meet's final day, Ribich and Nading will go for the individual title in the men's mile at 1:15 p.m. PST. At 4 p.m., Suzanne Van De Grift and Olivia Woods run in the women's 800 final while Dempsey runs for his second championship in the men's 800 meters at 4:15 p.m.
 
NCAA Championship Quotes
Men's DMR Champion - David Ribich, Western Oregon (anchor leg)
"The group that's on our DMR team, we sacrificed December and stayed together and trained in Monmouth. By the time it came to this point, we were pretty ready for it. the race panned out a lot different than we thought it would. When we came in with a 9:45, we ran that one time and we only did one DMR all year. We said, each of us can easily take two seconds off our split, and we planned to come out here and run 9:40. But the problem was we didn't expect other teams to come out here and run it, too. That's just the joy of championship racing. I've raced Oliver (Aitchison) a lot, and all credit to Adams State, they're one of the best or the best middle distance, or long distance programs in Division II. I knew Oliver's plan coming into the meet. If he got the baton close with me, I knew he'd try to kick with 300 meters to go, because that's his natural move and he's good at it. So I looked at the scoreboard with 300 meters left and I saw him kind of making a move, so I thought, well I'll make it harder for him to make a move on me, so I decided to go as well."