Tweet #Flamenation  Tweet #ThisYearItCounts

Results

DANVILLE, Ala. – In its first year of official Gulf South Conference (GSC) competition, the Lee University men's cross country team placed six runners in the top 20 to claim the school's first GSC championship Saturday morning at the Oakville Indian Mounds Cross Country Course.

The Flames will compete next on Nov. 7 in the NCAA South Regional, hosted by Saint Leo University and the Tampa Sports Commission at the Abbey Course in Saint Leo, Fla.

Lee posted a team score of 50 points to win the title by 28 points over Alabama Huntsville. West Alabama was finished third with 84 points.

"Our men were the favorites coming in and they ran like it," said Lee head coach Caleb Morgan." They dominated from the beginning with a perfectly executed race. We had six runners in front of any other team's fourth."

Harold Smith led the Flames with a personal-best 24:45.61 in the 8K race. The sophomore finished second out of 89 runners. Alfred Chelanga of Shorter University was the individual winner (23:53.85).

"It feels good to lead Lee to its first conference championship in the NCAA," said Smith. "We are a team. I couldn't do what I do without the support of my teammates. This was our first goal of three we have set for our team this year. I can't wait to see what we do in the weeks to come."

Seth Eagleson crossed the finish line at 25:04.38 to give the Flames two runners in the top four and two mentions on the All-GSC First Team.

Camden Perez, Terris Elliott, Gus Whitman and Brandon Raleigh all placed in the top 20 and earned spots on the All-GSC Second Team. Perez was 12^th (25:56.30), Elliott was 16^th (26:27.33), Whitman finished 18^th (26:34.90) and Raleigh stopped the clock at 26:44.52 (20^th).

"I am really proud of Camden Perez. This was his last 8K in a Lee uniform and he really came through running a big personal record," added Morgan.

Freshmen Davis Moore and Garrett Flores were the next two Flames to finish. Moore was 26^th (26:49.28) and Flores was 37^th (27:17.84). Emmanuel Kipchumba rounded out the Lee finishers at 27:42.16 (49^th).