In the potential final race of his career, senior Ryan Hill helped secure an ACC conference title to push himself and his cross country teammates into the NCAA Regionals.
With half a mile left to go in the men’s 8k race on the Musser Farms course at Clemson University on Saturday, Hill pulled away from the tight nit pack along with redshirt sophomore Andrew Colley seconds behind him. Crossing the finish line at 23:06.2, Hill was able to capture the ACC title in his last year of cross country eligibility.
“This was my first ACC Championship win as well as my last ACC Championship race,” Hill said. “I am obviously very happy about that and it was a good way to go out.”
With Colley a mere three seconds behind Hill at time of 23:09.2 and filling in the second spot, the finish allowed State to claim its 15th overall men’s championship with a score of 51 over Florida State’s 55 points and North Carolina’s 84.
Redshirt junior Patrick Campbell finished 15th at 23:56.5, with Brian Himelright (16th, 23:56.9), redshirt seniors Adam Henken (17th, 23:57.6) and Bobby Moldovan (19th, 24:03.9), then junior Matt Sonnenfeldt (20th, 24:04.8) being the five Wolfpack runners who helped in the process of winning the title while coming within 10 seconds of the All-ACC pace of 23:55.9.
Head Coach Rollie Gieger watched as his team performed up to his expectations on Saturday and was very pleased with the outcome.
“With Ryan [Hill] winning the ACC Title and Andrew [Colley] being second, it was huge because you got the first two guys in the race, so that was four points right there,” Geiger said. “We had to run really well up front in order to win and we did that as well as having seven runners in the top-20, which was a big number with our next five guys finishing right next to each other.”
The women’s team also had to put up a fight against Florida State on Saturday and also had a senior in the top spot. Andie Cozzarelli finished in eighth, followed by true freshman Joanna Thompson in 12th with times of 20:37.7 and 20:44.3, respectively, on the 6k course, allowing the team to finish tied for third with Virginia behind No. 1 ranked Florida State and Boston College.
Florida State finished 2-3-4-5-6 behind North Carolina’s Kendra Schaaf as the individual champion. Women’s head coach Laurie Henes was also pleased with her runners and hopes to see them do even better at the NCAA Regionals in two weeks.
“There are a lot of ranked teams in our conference and I think we did well and I saw many bright spots,” Henes said. “We always want a chance to win the ACC and we didn’t feel like we were there this year, but Florida State is very good and we feel like we have some room for improvement; so it was a nice solid step in the right direction and I feel like we have been doing that each meet.”
Sophomore Laura Hoer, the 2010 individual champion, finished 16th at 20:50.4.
Sophomore Kenyetta Iveybele, who is normally an 800-meter runner but has transitioned into a cross country athlete as well, finished 36th at 21:18.3. Junior Erin Mercer finished 42nd (21:35.2) along with redshirt junior Tiayonna Blackmon (50th, 21:53.8) and redshirt sophomore Samantha Norman (51st, 21:54.3). Norman, who lost a shoe a mile into the race and had to put it back on, still managed to finish in the top five with her teammates.
Leaving the cross country team next year, Cozzarelli was glad to see how close her team has gotten this year and hopes for a better race at Regionals for her and the team.
“Last year we definitely didn’t do as well as a team I think because we weren’t as team-oriented and it showed because we were spread out on the whole course last year,” Cozzarelli said. “We know we’re much better than that and can bring that gap closer because this year we have been talking together a lot as a team about what’s ahead of us and about being positive.”
On Nov. 12, the men’s and women’s teams will head to Louisville, Ky. in hopes of finishing in the top spots at the NCAA Southeast Regional Meet.
