Mars Hill’s Men’s Cross Country Team Advances to National Meet
Wingate, N.C.--St. Andrews Presbyterian College had three runners earn All-Region honors to help pace the Knights to the NCAA Division II Men's Cross Country Southeast Region Championship title, narrowly beating top-ranked Mars Hill College by three points on the campus of Wingate University Saturday morning.
St. Andrews, who had four runners in the top 20, won its first-ever Southeast Region title and receives their second straight bid to the NCAA National Championships with 94 points. St. Andrews fifth-year head coach Gary Aycock was named the 2006 Southeast Region Coach of the Year.
Mars Hill also gets an automatic bid to nationals by finishing second with 97 points. The Lions will make their fifth consecutive trip to the national meet in 2006. The National Championships will be held on Saturday, November 18 in Pensacola, Florida (hosted by the University of West Florida) during the NCAA Division II Fall Festival.
Seven other teams finished within 100 points of SAPC including CIAA Champion St. Augustine's College (102) in third and CVAC Champion Anderson University (122) in fourth. CVAC representatives Coker College (130) and Lees-McRae College (151) finished fourth and fifth, respectively. Lenoir-Rhyne College (172) followed in seventh while race host Wingate (177) was eighth. Rounding out the top 10 were Lincoln Memorial University (186) and Queens University of Charlotte (208).
Mars Hill senior Jon Stoehr, the 2006 SAC Champion, passed Wingate sophomore Jayce Watson late to claim Southeast Region Runner of the Year honors. Stoehr finished the 10K race in 32 minutes and 19 seconds while Watson crossed the finish line one second later at 32:20.
Freshman Wilfred Chemallan, from the University of the District of Columbia, finished third at 32:29; Coker College senior David Green garnered fourth at 32:35; and St. Augustine's College senior Isrrael Jaimes was fifth at 32:59. Watson, Chemallan, Green and Jaimes all qualify for Nationals as individuals.
The 2006 CVAC Runner of the Year Mitch Cooper (sophomore) led the victorious Knights in sixth place with a time of 33:04. Teammates Ryan Janes (freshman) and senior Tim Bourke (senior) were also selected to the All-Southeast Region Team. Janes stopped the clock in ninth at 33:30 while Bourke's split of 33:54 was good for 15th. St. Andrews other scoring runners were CVAC Freshman of the Year Pedro Tapia, Jr. (18th; 34:11) and sophomore Perry Morris (53rd; 35:43).
The top 15 runners in the 120-entrant field were named to the All-Southeast Region Team. Other award recipients included St. Augustine's freshman Ken Samoei (33:20), Lenior-Rhyne senior Jon Sharp (33:21), Anderson sophomore Nathan Parsons (33:37), Limestone junior Brent Clausing (33:44), St. Augustine's junior Omar Wiggan (33:45), Lincoln Memorial sophomore Ted Johnson (33:45) and Anderson junior Ethan Schaffner (33:47).