MORRISTOWN, Tenn. - The Anderson University men's cross country team nearly earned its first league title, finishing second just behind Mars Hill Saturday morning at the 2011 Food Lion SAC Cross Country Championships, hosted by Carson-Newman at Panther Creek State Park.
The Trojans very nearly dethroned the defending champion Lions, who have won 15 consecutive SAC titles. Mars Hill was ranked No. 5 in the latest USTFCCCA Southeast Region poll, while Anderson, which finished third in last year's SAC Championship, was sixth in the regional rankings.
Three AU runners posted top-10 times, led by sophomore Parks Edwards (26:56.7) fourth-place effort, while junior Alex Pena (27:08.4) and sophomore Deniz Hay (27:11.9) notched eighth and ninth, respectively.
Edwards was named First-team All-Conference, while Pena and Hay earned Second-team All-SAC honors for their efforts.
Sophomore Kyle Koby (27:21.4) also earned second-team accolades after crossing the line in 12th, while junior Matt Shaffer (27:28.1) narrowly missed garnering the same honor with his 15th place finish.
Freshman Joshua Visi-Clark (27:58.3) nearly collected
all-freshman accolades, finishing
24th, with junior Drew Mahaffey (28:50. 9) and Matt Imes (28:58.8)
crossed the line in 38th and 41st, respectively.
Scoring Teams and Points:
1 Mars Hill 46
2 Anderson 48
3 Wingate 98
4 Lenoir-Rhyne 101
5 Brevard 142
6 Lincoln Memorial 176
7 Newberry 197
8 Catawba 204
9 Carson-Newman 230
10 Tusculum 249
