Mount Olive Voted Number One in Men’s Cross Country Preseason Coaches' Poll
HIGH POINT, N.C. - The University of
Mount Olive men’s cross country team is ranked atop the
Conference Carolinas Preseason Coaches'
Poll heading into the 2014 season. Mount
Olive returns five All-Conference Carolinas Men’s Cross
Country runners from last year’s NCAA II Southeast Regional
Championship and 2013 NCAA II National Finalist squad. Five
returning Trojans also earned All-Southeast Region honors last
year.
Eugini Gil was last year’s Conference Carolinas Freshman
of the Year, finishing ninth at last year’s conference
championship. Akiharu Kitagawa finished third, Steven Greco was
ninth, Jacob Urys placed 12th and Frederic Lang finished 15th as
all of the Trojan runners earned All-Conference. Austin Steagall
finished fifth at the Southeast Regional.
Mount Olive hopes to have enough depth to challenge for a third
straight Conference Carolinas Championship, despite the loss of
last year’s Southeast Region and Conference Carolinas Runner
of the Year Dylan Lafond. Lafond transferred to Division I
University of Illinois.
Trojan head coach Matt van Lierop was named 2013 Conference
Carolinas Men’s Cross Country Coach of the Year.
Coming off of their second straight NCAA Division II National
Championship appearance, the King University men's cross country
team has been selected to finish second in the Conference Carolinas
Preseason Coaches' Poll. The Tornado finished second to the
University of Mount Olive at both the Conference Carolinas
Championships and the NCAA Southeast Regional a season ago.
Senior Jordan Noe and junior Brent Swiney return to lead the
team. Swiney turned the highest finishes of returning runners at
both the Conference Carolinas Championships and NCAA Southeast
Regional. The Bristol, Virginia native finished eighth at the
conference meet with a personal record 8k time of 25:46.75, and he
took 16th at the regional meet. Tanner Cook and Jordan Smith will
join the duo along with four freshmen and one transfer student.
King opens the season at Eye Opener Invitational in Spartanburg,
South Carolina on September 5.
Voted to finish third, North
Greenville men’s cross country team is coming off their best
season in program history. The team is returning all but two
scorers from the Conference Carolina’s Championship last
October. In addition, the Crusaders have added some new talented
runners.
The Crusaders are a young team that will be led by junior Ahmad
Nesbitt, who finished second in the 2013 Conference Carolinas
Championship with a time of 24:55. The men’s cross country
team has a lot of potential and hopes to make some noise in both
the conference and regional meets in November.
The pre-season polls are completed with Pfeiffer placing forth
followed by Belmont Abbey, Limestone, Barton, Lees-McRae, and
Erskine respectively.
Conference
Carolinas Men’s Cross Country Preseason
Poll
(# of First Place Votes in
Parenthesis)
|
Mount Olive
|
79
|
(7)
|
|
King
|
74
|
(2)
|
|
North Greenville
|
64
|
|
|
Pfeiffer
|
56
|
|
|
Belmont Abbey
|
50
|
|
|
Limestone
|
45
|
|
|
Barton
|
34
|
|
|
Lees-McRae
|
34
|
|
|
Erskine
|
32
|
|