Here's my take on this situation:
UW-Whitewater was the team who was DQ'd and UW-Eau Claire was the team that ended up winning that race. I was at the meet (spectating), but I am from neither of those teams. What happened was there was some jostling that was going on in the huge pack of guys from about 200-300 meters into the race. On the backstretch, in the middle of all of this, the 1200 leg of the WW team had the baton knocked out of his hand. He then had get his way out of the pack, stop, turn around, grab the baton and then get going again. He took off trying to do all he could to catch the pack again and then died pretty bad the last lap. The kid was a frosh, I felt really bad. The 400 leg went after it doing all he could, then when it came to the 800 leg it looked like he put in an honest effort for a little over a lap then backed of significantly for the last 3 laps.
The anchor for WW, Dawson Miller, a 4:10 miler and 8:53ish steepler, got the baton and ran in lanes 2 and 3, running like 70s or so. Just planning to finish the race. When he got the baton he had no intention of pacing or anything. It wasn't until they were about to get lapped for a 2nd time that EC came up on him and he decided to go with him.
Now, the Amherst anchor had gone out in a 56 for the 400, and then came through in a 3:01 for the 1200. This is not a sub 4:05 guy, according to TFRRS the best miler on their team had a PR of 4:14, on a banked track, which converts to 4:17 for a flat 200 track. So either this kid was about to run out of his absolute mind or he was going to pay the price. He paid the price in closing in a 69 for the last 400.
The EC anchor, Josh Thorson had a PR of 4:13 from a flat 200 track. From the look on his face during that race, he was on a mission, he knew the Amherst kid was dying and he just kept hammering along knowing what he had to do. He ended up splitting 4:05 (and then ran 8:11 for 3rd in the 3k the next day). He would have caught that Amherst kid whether or not Dawson ran with him or not. The only question was by how much.
Anyone who actually thinks this was planned is an absolute moron. If you were to DQ Eau Claire for what Dawson did that would be one of the dumbest officiating calls I had ever heard of. Was Thorson just supposed to slow down and not run next to him or something? You're honestly an idiot if you think so.
There is an insane amount of solidarity and friendship in the WIAC conference. It's the best conference in DIII, hands down, not even close, a 9 year old can figure that out. It's the conference against everyone else. There has been an immense amount of support given to Dawson, from schools who were in the race and from teams that were just at the meet. The only team that threw a hissy fit was Amherst. THEY DIDN'T EVEN GET SECOND. UW-LaCrosse caught them too, and that team was still 4 seconds behind Eau-Claire.
This comment is for the original post that said that Amherst is the National Record holding team in the DMR. Amherst ran 9:48 on a banked track, which converts to 9:56 on a flat track. Eau-Claire ran 9:54 on a flat track. Do the math. Amherst's DMR are not record holders.