Mars Hill No. 1 in Preseason Men’s Cross Country Poll; Anderson Tops All-SAC Team

ROCK HILL, S.C. -- Mars Hill College, which has won 14-consecutive Food Lion South Atlantic Conference men's cross country championships, was chosen by league coaches as the 2011 favorite, it was announced on Wednesday.

The Lions received seven first-place votes, followed by No. 2 Anderson, which received the other three.

Meanwhile, Anderson - which finished third in last year's SAC Championship - leads the league with four student-athletes on the preseason All-Conference team, also released on Wednesday. Mars Hill had one student-athlete on both the first and second teams.

Lenoir-Rhyne and Wingate tied for third in the coaches' poll. The Bears feature one first-team and two second-team selections on the preseason All-SAC team, while WU placed three on the first-team.

No. 5 in the preseason poll is Catawba, followed by Brevard, Lincoln Memorial and Carson-Newman. Catawba and Lincoln-Memorial each feature one student-athlete on the preseason All-SAC first team.

The poll is rounded out by Tusculum (No. 9) and Newberry (No. 10).

In total, nine of the preseason All-SAC selections - and the entire first team -- were named all-conference in 2010 as well,. The list includes Mars Hill's Justin Gragg, whose second-place individual finish in the 2010 SAC Championship is the highest of any returning student-athlete.

- Contributing: Seth Montomery, Brevard Media Relations

Men's Cross Country Preseason All-SAC Team

First Team
Christian Crifasi, Catawba
Jakob Maidens, Lenoir-Rhyne
Derrick Lindsay, Lincoln Memorial
Justin Gragg, Mars Hill
Binyam Belachew, Wingate
Steve Hammond, Wingate
Andrew Smith, Wingate

Second Team
Parks Edwards, Anderson
Deniz Hay, Anderson
Kyle Koby, Anderson
Alex Pena, Anderson
Zack Queen, Lenoir-Rhyne
Mike Ryan, Lenoir-Rhyne

Eric Blackburn, Mars Hill