Like Columbus State Athletics on Facebook!
By:
Will DeBoerOAKWOOD, Ga. – Easily locking up the bronze, the Columbus State University men's cross country team finished third at the Peach Belt Conference Championship on Saturday. The 8k race, hosted by North Georgia, was held at the UNG Gainesville Campus course in Oakwood, Ga.
The Cougar runners put 77 points on the board, easily ahead of fourth- and fifth-places foes Georgia College (130) and Flagler (146). UNC Pembroke won the league championship with 49 points, while Augusta finished second with 64 points.
"They ran exactly how I told them to run, and we did the best we could on this particular day," said head coach JD Evilziser after the race.
For the second straight season,
Ryan McFall and
Cordaryl Whitehead earned All-PBC laurels with top-15 finishes. McFall, a senior from Lilburn, crossed the line in fourth place in a time of 25:57.0. Whitehead, a senior from Eutaw, Ala. took eighth place in 26:32.8.
Hussen Sadik narrowly missed his own all-conference nod, taking 16
th place with a time of 27:04.8, two-and-a-half seconds behind the 15
th-place cutoff.
Jacob Dirkman finished 21
st by crossing the line in 27:16.1.
Austin Stewart (28
th, 27:27.8),
David Thornton (30
th, 27:40.6),
Kane Barrett (34
th, 27:47.4),
Tyler Sheffel (41
st, 28:01.1),
Jelani Omari (45
th, 28:06.5) and
Timothy Thompson (89
th, 32:09.6) also ran for the Cougars.
Jacob Dirkman gave CSU the league's highest academic honor for the fourth straight year, winning the PBC Elite 15 Award presented by GradesFirst. The award is given to the runner competing in the championship meet with the highest cumulative GPA.
Cordaryl Whitehead took home another honor by being named to the PBC All-Sportsmanship team.
Columbus State now turns its attention to the NCAA Southeast Regionals, which will be held in Wingate, N.C. on Nov. 7.
