Mars Hill Wins 2016 SAC Men’s Cross Country Crown

FULL MEN'S RESULTS

COLUMBIA, S.C. – The Mars Hill Lions put all five runners in the top 11 to win the 2016 South Atlantic Conference Men's Cross Country Championship in Columbia, S.C., on Saturday morning.

A push by the Lions in the third mile handed them their 19th cross country championship in 20 years, as Mars Hill had previously won 18 SAC men's cross country championships in a row until being knocked off by Queens at last year's championship.

Mars Hill's David Jones was named the SAC Men's Runner of the Year after completing the 8k course in 25:54.8, finishing 26 seconds ahead of the next closest runner in the competition.

The Lions finished with 30 points, ahead of runner-up Queens who finished the race with 60 points. Third-place Anderson finished the competition with 100 points. Rounding out the top half of the standings were Lincoln Memorial with 121 points, Wingate with 125 points, and Lenoir-Rhyne with 154 points.

Catawba (201), Carson-Newman (227) and Brevard (246) finished in the seventh, eight and ninth place spots. Coker (273), Tusculum (277) and Newberry (280) rounded out the final teams in the competition. 

Led by David Jones, Mars Hill runners Brandon Beard, Garrett Farrimond, and James Gilreath finished in within eight seconds of each other in the fifth, sixth and seventh positions. Noah Allison was the fifth Lions' runner coming in at 11th place.

Sean McMahon of Catawba has been awarded the 2016 SAC Elite 18 award, given to the competitor with the top cumulative GPA at each SAC Championship final site, for compiling a 3.97 GPA in Sociology.

2016 Runner of the Year
David Jones, Mars Hill

All-SAC First Team
James Gilreath, Mars Hill
Garrett Farrimond, Mars Hill
Brandon Beard, Mars Hill
Elijah Inuwa, Queens
Jacob Black, Lenoir-Rhyne
Mason Hazel, Anderson
David Jones, Mars Hill

The 2016 Men's All-Freshman Team  
Luke Horne, Anderson
Jacob Gatewood, Lincoln Memorial
Amos Korir, Carson-Newman
Anthony Raftis, Queens