Conference Carolinas

Mount Olive Claims 2015 Women's Cross Country Championship; Converse's Sutherland Named Runner of the Year

10/23/2015 12:00:00 AM

Full Results

CONCORD, N.C. – The University of Mount Olive women won the 2015 Conference Carolinas Cross Country Championship at Frank Liske Park in Concord, N.C. on Friday afternoon. Converse's Ashly Sutherland took the individual title in the women's 5K race to earn Runner of the Year honors.

Mount Olive registered a score of 53 to earn the team title, just ahead of Limestone who tallied 79 points for a second-place finish. A pair of Crusaders earned the third and fourth positions, as Belmont Abbey scored 110 points and North Greenville turned in 124 points. King came in fifth with 131 points, while Pfeiffer finished sixth with a score of 136. Barton would finish with 147 points in seventh and Converse would place eighth with 165 points. Rounding out the field was Lees-McRae in ninth with a score of 214 and Erskine with 249 in 10^th.

Individually, Ashly Sutherland came in first after running the race in 18:46.3 to capture Conference Carolinas Runner of the Year honors, while Limestone's Sarah Rutto finished second overall with a time of 19:23.5 to claim Freshman of the Year recognition.

Mount Olive head coach, Matt van Lierop, was named Conference Carolinas Coach of the Year after leading the No. 8 regionally ranked Trojans to their second straight conference championship.

The top 15 finishers were named All-Conference selections:

2015 Conference Carolinas Women's All-Conference Teams

All-Conference First Team
Ashly Sutherland, Converse
Sarah Rutto, Limestone
Bailee Henry, Mount Olive
Kelsey Valentine, Mount Olive
Samantha Schreiber, King

Conference Carolinas Tournament Champion: 
University of Mount Olive

Runner of the Year:
Ashly Sutherland, Converse

Freshman of the Year:
Sarah Rutto, Limestone

Coach of the Year:
Matt van Lierop, Mount Olive

Conference Carolinas is a NCAA Division II athletics conference made up of 12 teams from Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. These institutions consist of: Barton College, Belmont Abbey, Converse College, Emmanuel College, Erskine College, King University, Lees-McRae College, Limestone College, University of Mount Olive, North Greenville University, Pfeiffer University, and Southern Wesleyan. Emmanuel College and Southern Wesleyan University are currently completing the NCAA Membership Process and will be fully competing in league championships in the near future.