RESULTS | ALL-GSC TEAMS

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – The Lee University men's cross country team claimed its second-consecutive GSC Championship and sixth overall Saturday morning at John Hunt Cross Country Park. The 12^th-ranked Flames placed five runners in the top 10 on their way to collecting 35 points. No. 21 Alabama Huntsville finished second with 59 points and Mississippi College was third with 62 points.

Matthew Fowler was Lee's top finisher at No. 4 with a time of 23:44.10. Sam Wilhelm of UAH was the individual 8K champion with a clock stoppage of 23:30.60. Owen Pearce finished sixth at 24:29.00. Ezekiel Harless (24:30.20) was seventh and Stephen Clark placed eighth (24:43.50). Caleb Guthery was Lee's final scorer with a 10^th-place finish (24:47.60).

Jacob Hatcher and Roberto Fajardo were the Lee spacers at 13^th and 14^th, respectively. Hatcher crossed the finish line at 24:52.90, while Fajardo was close behind at 24:53.60.

Luke Gaddis' time of 25:11.70 was good for 19^th position. Evan Moore finished 22^nd (25:28.10) and Jon Fielding Stogner (25:29.90) was 23^rd.

Lee had eight runners earn recognition as All-GSC. Fowler, Pearce, Harless, Clark and Guthery five six of the 10 spots on the First Team, while Hatcher, Fajardo and Gaddis claimed three positions on the Second Team.

Director of Cross Country Caleb Morgan was named the GSC Men's Cross Country Coach of the Year.

The Flames will now advance to the NCAA Division II South Region Championships on November 4. The 10K race is set to be held at the University of Montevallo Cross Country Course.
 

Coach Caleb Morgan's Thoughts:
"I told our guys last night in our meeting that every single year we go to conference championship, there are a lot of guys there through five or six kilometers that aren't necessarily supposed to be there and then they're not there at the end. Everyone runs really strong for that first three-fourths of the race, but then you kind of find out who the better team is the last couple of kilometers. I think that's one thing for us is to understand that expectation and not to panic when there's a lot of guys around you and not to panic when it's a one-point difference like it was at 5K and then we up winning by 24. That's been our message all year. You have to close, no matter what it is, in every home stretch, every last 200 meters. We want to act like each person we're passing is the difference between us winning or losing the meet. I thought they did a great job with that."

"Stephen Clark stepped up huge for us and ran as our four. Owen and Ezekiel looked very comfortable as our two and three. Obviously, Matt was our top runner and ran the second-fastest time in Lee history. A lot of good guys and a lot of good leadership there. We have guys like Caleb Guthery who is our No. 5, he's a fifth-year senior and never ran a conference championship in cross country and that's very difficult to sit around for four years, but when the opportunity presented itself this year, he came out and was our last scoring piece. Phenomenal group of guys and good job of just keeping their cool and closing it up well."