HOOVER, Ala. - Concluding the season on Saturday in Hoover, Ala., the men’s cross country team finished ninth at the NCAA South Regional. Racing at Veterans Park for the second time this season, the squad performed well in their only 10k of the season with two runners finishing in the top 40.

Racing in only their second Regional competition, the men were up against teams from Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi and Georgia. Although they may not have finished in the top two to qualify for Nationals, head cross country coach Stan Sims knows he had something special with his team this season.

“For us, Regionals is the sweet icing on the season’s cake but today it was more bittersweet because we didn’t finish where we thought we would,” Sims said. “We had been training all week for a kamikaze pace and if we needed to crash and burn in a race, today was going to be it. We have had a great season and our men should be proud of themselves.”

Proving to be the top guy going into the Regional meet, Nabil Hamid would earn himself an All-Region award for his 14th place finish on Saturday. His time of 30:40 was an improvement of 30 seconds off his 26th place finish from last season. Jaakko Nieminen was next for the Owls finishing 31st in a time of 31:22. Nieminen's time was a personal record of 40 seconds over last season.

Ryan Burruss, Zach Tupper and Steven Murray rounded out the top five for the Owls in 73rd, 81st and 101st, respectively. Burruss improved on his time of last season by 30 seconds. Freshman Dylan Swafford rounded out the group for the Owls in 119th in his first 10k.

“We had a plan for Nabil going into the race and he did exactly what we told him to do. Zach had a great race as a freshman being his first 10k race. In my opinion, this is the most cohesive men’s team that I have ever coached.”

The final race of the season was just one of the main highlights for the men in 2010. After starting the season in Chattanooga, the men took the road to Alabama and Kentucky where they fared well against tough competition from all over the country placing fifth and ninth, respectively.

Visits to Samford and Chattanooga for a second time, the squad saw themselves with a first place finish at Samford and second in Chattanooga.Those final two meets proved the team was primed and ready to defend their A-Sun title and for the second straight season, the men’s team would capture the A-Sun Conference championship and bring it home to Kennesaw.

The men would finish their season Saturday with a 72-22 record. Their 72 wins is the second most since becoming a Division I program.

Full Men's Results


Team Results

  1 Alabama- 30 points

   2 Florida State-  55 points

   3 Florida- 76  points

   4 Tennessee- 150 points

   5 Georgia- 157 points

   6 Chattanooga- 193 points

   7 Ole Miss- 219 points

   8 Belmont- 236 points

   9 Kennesaw State- 244 points

  10 Mississippi State- 277 points

  11 North Florida- 287 points

  12 South Florida- 341 points

  13 Lipscomb- 342 points

  14 Vanderbilt- 364   points

  15 Mississippi Valley- 373 points

  16 Mercer- 375 points

  17 Miami- 413 points

  18 Tennessee Tech – 475 points

 

Individual Results

14. Nabil Hamid- 30:40

31. Jaakko Nieminen- 31:22

73. Ryan Burruss-32:42

81. Zach Tupper-32:53

101. Steven Murray-33:35

119. Dylan Swafford-34:18