Matt McClintock placed 20th overall in the junior men’s race of the World Cross Country Championships held Sunday in Bydgoszcz, Poland.

McClintock, a native of Athens and a graduate of Madison Area Memorial High School, finished first among six Americans in the race to lead the United States to a fourth-place finish overall behind Ethiopia, Kenya and Morocco among 17 countries.

McClintock qualified for the World Championships with his performance at the U.S. Junior Nationals in St. Louis. As a freshman on the cross country team at Purdue this fall, McClintock finished eighth at both the Big 10 championships and NCAA regionals and 103rd overall at the NCAA championships.

North Yarmouth native Ben True placed sixth in the senior men’s race to lead the U.S. to a surprising silver medal over heavily-favored Kenya. Ethiopia took the team title with its top four runners totaling 38 points. Kenyan men had won the team title in 24 of the previous 26 world championships.

True was the first American in the field of 102 with a time of 33 minutes, 11 seconds. A graduate of Dartmouth College, True trains in Hanover, N.H.

In the women’s race, 2012 Beach to Beacon runner-up Emily Chebet won by three seconds in 24:24 to lead Kenya to the team title. Ethiopia was second followed by Bahrain and the United States.

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