Newton, N.C.----Both Wingate University cross country teams finished third in the 2009 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference championship meet Saturday morning at Southside Park. The event was hosted by Lenoir-Rhyne University.
For the Bulldog men, seniors
Doug Coats (Durham, N.C.) and
David Sanctis (Charlotte, N.C.) and sophomore
Tesfom Mehari (Charlotte, N.C.) earned All-SAC honors. Mehari finished eighth with an 8K time of 27:10. Coats (27:16, 10th) and Sanctis (27:31, 12th) were right on Mehari’s coattails.
Senior
R.J. Voetsch (Evan Mills, N.Y.) finished 21st with an 8K time of 28:25. Freshman
Andrew Smith (Oakboro, N.C.) missed earning All-Freshman team honors by one position and one second. Smith ran a personal best with his 8K time of 28:45, placing 24th.
Senior
Brittany Vish (Raleigh, N.C.) earned All-SAC honors for the Wingate women in her first season of competition. Vish was eighth with a 5K time of 21:00. Junior teammate
Alicia Harbold (Ephrata, Pa.) also received All-SAC laurels. The niece of Wingate head football coach
Joe Reich was ninth with a 21:02 clocking.
Wingate sophomore
Lindsey Lippencott (Forest Hill, Md.) charted at the number 20 position, completing the 5K course with a time of 22:13. Bulldog freshman
Melanie Wollenberg (New Lexington, Ohio) continued her solid season by earning a spot on the All-Freshman team. She finished 22nd with a 5K time of 22:25.
Bulldog senior
Jen Bossi (Bristol, Conn.) rounded out the scoring for Wingate, finishing 26th with a time of 22:56. An athletic training major, Bossi was one of 19 Wingate cross country runners who earned SAC Commissioner’s Honor Roll laurels in the spring of 2009.
Mars Hill College won the men’s team title for the 13th year in a row, while Lenoir-Rhyne captured the women’s team crown. Individually, Tusculum College junior
Simon Holzapfel won the men’s 8K race. Lenoir-Rhyne sophomore
Kate Griewisch took the women’s 5K title.
The Bulldogs return to action Saturday, November 7, when Wingate hosts the 2009 NCAA Division II Southeast Region Championship. In 2008, 53 teams (24 men, 29 women) and 295 student-athletes competed in the regional race at the Wingate University Cross Country facility.
Complete meet results:
http://www.bigkahunatiming.com/
