ODAC competitors took part in the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships on Saturday afternoon. A total of 19 runners from league schools took part in six-kilometer (women) and eight-kilometer (men) races at Forest Akers East Golf Course in East Lansing, Mich.
The University of Lynchburg has already had a banner cross country season with both of its teams preparing to compete in the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships in East Lansing, Mich., on Saturday. The success of the program was further highlighted on Friday with the announcement of the 2022 ODAC Cross Country Special Awards as part of the all-conference process.
In a vote of the leagues' head coach, Lynchburg nearly swept all six special honors announced for the first time today with only a tied situation for men's rookie of the year preventing a clean sweep. Hornets standouts Kelsey Lagunas and Frank Csorba garnered ODAC Runner of the Year honors, while Lynchburg mentor Jake Reed collected both ODAC Coach of the Year laurels. Lynchburg first-year Hailey Smith collected ODAC Rookie of the Year recognition on the women's ledger, while teammate Jonathan Cobb and Washington and Lee University first-year Colin Verrett shared men's rookie distinction.
The ODAC/Virginia Farm Bureau Insurances Scholar-Athletes --- W&L's Carolyn Todd and Josh Fingerhut --- were announced along with the All-ODAC First and Second Teams following the ODAC Championships hosted by Bridgewater College earlier this fall. A complete listing of honors is posted below.
The news was great on Saturday following the Division III South Region Cross Country Championships on Saturday and got better on Sunday with the Division III Men's and Women's Cross Country Championships Committees' announcement of the national championship fields.
The University of Lynchburg won its first-ever women's region crown and came within one point in the men's ranks of a team sweep following competition at Lee Hall Mansion in Newport News, Va. The Hornets men did not have to wait long to learn they will be joining their women's teammates as team competitors in next weekends national event at Forest Akers East Golf Course on the campus of Michigan State University in Lansing, Mich.
A handful of individuals from ODAC schools also qualified for national competition.
History was made on Saturday at Kernstown Battlefield at the 2022 ODAC Cross Country Championships. The University of Lynchburg swept both titles for the second straight season, marking the ninth consecutive year that one school has hoisted both league trophies.
But this season's sweep featured an added bonus. Lynchburg runners finished first-thru-fifth in BOTH races, racking up the minimum 15 points to lead the team table. This is the first time in ODAC men's cross country championship history and second time in women's league event annals (1994) that a school earned the minimum point allotment.
Lynchburg has now won a record 19 men's cross country championships, while its women's total improves to eight trophies, trailing only Washington and Lee University's 19 crowns.
The ODAC Cross Country Championships return to Kernstown Battlefield in Kernstown, Va., just outside of Winchester. Shenandoah University will serve as hosts for the second time, joining the event it hosted in 2018.
This year's course uses a large area off Route 11 and features a mix of tight and soft turns with several longer straightaways to provide variety for both fields of runners. The women's six-kilometer race kicks off the championship at 11:00 a.m. ET. The men's eight-kilometer competition follows at 12:00 p.m. ET.
Timing will be provided by Blue Ridge Timing and posted to the results site at several intervals throughout the race as well as at the conclusion of each competition. Streaming for the event is provided by Shenandoah University via Blueframe Technology.
Week eight marks the final report of the season for cross country with the ODAC Championships slated for Kernstown Battlefield this weekend. League runners had just one event on the docket in prelude to the league meet with the Wildcat XC Classic hosted by Johnson & Wales in Charlotte, N.C.
Women's cross country features the only award winner this week with Sweet Briar's Angelyn Wiggins taking home the final prize of the season after a program-record setting run in Charlotte.
We are just 11 days away from the first championship of the fall season as ODAC cross country runners competed at a bevy of locations during week seven. The Roanoke Invitational featured a large portion of the conference, while others competed at a pair of inter-regional events hosted by Oberlin College (Ohio) and Rowan University (N.J.), the Aubrey Shenk Invitational at Gettysburg College, and the VertCross hosted by High Point University.
League runners placed near the top in several races in each of those outings. Earning this week's ODAC Runner of the Week laurels are a pair of seniors in Lynchburg's Sam Llaneza and Washington and Lee's Carolyn Todd. Llaneza posted his second-fastest race of the season at the Rowan Inter-Regional Border Battle, while Todd picked up her second weekly award following a strong finish at the Oberlin Inter-Regional Rumble.
Two events appeared on the ODAC week six cross country schedule with teams competing at either the Golden Acord Invitational hosted by Mary Baldwin University or the Royals XC Challenge hosted by Queens University (Charlotte, N.C.).
Conference runners again faired well at both events, but it was the Eastern Mennonite University duo of Lucy Unzicker and Bellamy Immanuel that earn this week's ODAC Runner of the Week distinctions. Both claimed victory in their respective fields at the Golden Acorn, leading EMU to top team finishes in both events.
Weather canceled one event for ODAC cross country runners with the annual Hagan Stone Classic lost to the rain, but that didn't keep conference athletes from competing -- and placing well -- at three other high profile meets. Those included the Paul Short Run at Lehigh University on Friday afternoon along with Saturday's Mike Woods Invitational at SUNY-Geneseo and Don Cathcart Invitational hosted by Salisbury University.
Earning this week's ODAC Runner of the Week awards are both go Lynchburg athletes following outstanding showings in fields in upwards of 380 competitors. Kelsey Lagunas posted the second-fastest 6K time in Lynchburg women's cross country history, while Frank Csorba became the first men's competitor to break 24-minutes on an 8K course in ODAC history. Both established the fastest times in the ODAC at those distances this season.
ODAC cross country runners competed in just two events over the weekend. One was a big affair with Shenandoah University hosting its annual Hornet Harrier & Commonwealth Challenge, which doubled this year as the ODAC Preview with the conference championship meet slated for the Kernstown Battlefield course on Halloween weekend.
Earning this week's ODAC Runner of the Week awards are Eastern Mennonite University senior Clay Kauffman and Shenandoah graduate student Erin Atkinson. Kauffman won the men's eight-kilometer races at Kernstown, while Atkins finished second overall in the women's six-kilometer competition.
Big performances continued with this weeks ODAC cross country report. League runners took part in pair of events over the weekend with the Bridgewater Invitational and the first larger-scale event, the NCAA South Region Preview, on the docket. Conference athletes won three titles and were the top collegiate/Division III finishers in all four races.
Earning this week's ODAC Runner of the Week awards are Lynchburg standouts Frank Csorba and Sarah James. Csorba has already earn acclaimed from the USTFCCCA after winning the NCAA South Region Preview, while James was the top D-III competitor in finishing fifth overall behind four Division I runners.
Lynchburg senior Frank Csorba was named the Division III Runner of the Week by the USTFCCCA on Monday afternoon following his first place finish at the NCAA South Region Preview on Friday.
The first full week of the 2022 season is in the books. ODAC student-athletes gave fans a treat with some near mid-season form in the early going, leading many to believe we are in for a banner campaign. Those earning ODAC Athlete of the Week awards for Tuesday, September 6, include (pictured, from left and top): Shyenne Diaz from Virginia Wesleyan women's soccer, Mairead McKibbin from Shenandoah field hockey, Abbey Clayton from VWU women's volleyball, Charles Scharf and Carolyn Todd from Washington and Lee cross country, and Kenny Robles from Lynchburg men's soccer.
Three of conference's head coaches -- Brandon Spalding from Washington and Lee, Jake Reed from Lynchburg, Andrew Marrocco from Shenandoah -- joined the ODAC's J.J. Nekoloff to preview the upcoming cross country season.
Randolph director of athletics, Tom Galbraith, announced Tuesday the hiring of Todd Pettyjohn as head women's track and field / cross country coach. He will also serve as an assistant coach for the men's programs in the same sports.
Eastern Mennonite University cross country and track & field standout Isaac Alderfer was honored by the Division III Commissioners Association on Thursday afternoon as the Region VI Men's Student-Athlete of the Year.
It is rare to have a "first" for a set of awards that have been bestowed since the early 1980's, but that is exactly what we have this season following the announcement of the Marjorie Berkley and Harry G. "Doc" Jopson Awards on Tuesday afternoon. Shenandoah University women's basketball forward Olivia Weinel and Eastern Mennonite University cross country and mid-distance track athlete Isaac Alderfer garnered the conference's highest honors from the ODAC Board of the Directors.
Weinel is the first recipient of either honor from Shenandoah since the Winchester-based school joined the ODAC prior to the 2012-13 season. Alderfer is the sixth Royal to earn the Jopson Award and 12th overall high honor winner from EMU. He is the first Royals' student-athlete to claim either trophy since Tyler Denlinger earned the Jopson Award in 2017.
Colby DelBene of Forest, Virginia, has been named Head Cross Country Coach/Assistant Director of Track & Field at Virginia Wesleyan University, according to Cameia Alexander, VWU Director of Men's and Women's Cross Country and Track and Field.
ODAC competitors took part in the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships on Saturday afternoon. A total of 16 runners from league schools took part in six-kilometer (women) and eight-kilometer (men) races at E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Ky.
All eyes are on cross country this weekend with the return of the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships on Saturday. As was customary prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ODAC kicks off the weekend by announcing its annual All-ODAC Cross Country Special Awards recipients following a vote of the league's head coaches over the past week.
The University of Lynchburg, which will feature both of its teams in Louisville, Ky., tomorrow in the national championships, collected all six special honors decided this week in addition to the previous accolades announced following the conference championships. Hornets graduate student Stephanie Burnett and senior Max Sparks were tabbed the ODAC Women's and Men's Runners of the Year. Teammates Allison Dell and Sam Llaneza took home the ODAC Women's and Men's Rookie of the Year laurels. Head coach Jake Reed earned both ODAC Coach of the Year plaques from his peers.
The ODAC/Virginia Farm Bureau Insurances Scholar-Athletes --- Burnett and Eastern Mennonite University senior Isaac Alderfer --- were announced along with the All-ODAC First and Second Teams following the ODAC Championships hosted by Bridgewater College earlier this fall. A complete listing of honors is posted below.
ODAC cross country has that spark...Max Sparks, to be exact.
The University of Lynchburg standout and ODAC men's individual champion again stood atop the final results as he won the men's crown to highlight the conference's showing at the NCAA Division III Region VI Championships hosted at the Roger Milliken Center in Spartanburg, S.C.
The news got better on Sunday afternoon as Lynchburg, who finished second in both the men's eight-kilometer and women's six-kilometer races, earned a pair of at-large team bids to next weekend's NCAA Division III Championships in E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Ky. Additionally, two women's runners qualified for nationals directly from their regional performances.
Lynchburg swept the team and individual titles at the 2021 ODAC Cross Country Championships. We take a look at those performances, and talk with both ODAC Runners of the Week, Max Sparks and Kelsey Lagunas from Lynchburg.
For the eighth straight championship, one school has claimed both of the conference cross country team trophies. This year, the University of Lynchburg is the ultimate winner as the Hornets men's and women's squads hoisted both pieces of league hardware following competition at the 2021 ODAC Cross Country Championships.
Bridgewater College is the host venue for the return of the ODAC Cross Country Championships on Saturday, but someone forgot to tell Mother Nature with inclement weather impacting the course and greeting the conference's runners in the first cross country postseason event in two years.
ODAC runners will be competing on a custom layout on Bridgewater's campus featuring relatively flat terrain. Runners will complete multiple loops of the course beginning with the men's eight-kilometer race at 11:00 a.m. ET followed by the women's six-kilometer competition at 12:00 p.m. ET.
Nearly every ODAC school was in action in week seven with five different meets featuring league runners. The ODAC Cross Country Championships are less than two weeks away. Events this past weekend and a couple next weekend will serve as the final tune-ups as the conference prepares to hand out the first trophy of the 2021-22 season.
Lynchburg performed well in strong fields at the Inter-Regional Border Battle in New Jersey with a pair of Hornets -- Stephanie Burnett and Frank Csorba -- earning their second ODAC weekly awards of the fall.
Week six of the ODAC fall season featured a trio of cross country teams in action as the first championship of the 2021-22 athletic year draws closer. Earning this week's ODAC Runners of the Week awards are a pair of first year student-athletes in Guilford's Nate Warden and Sweet Briar's Angelyn Wiggins.
Nearly the entire ODAC cross country sponsorship was in action in week five at one of four separate events. Each meet featured championship level distances for the first time, with several strong performances forecasting a strong championship season beginning in a few weeks.
This week's ODAC Runners of the Week both shined on the national stage -- Lynchburg's Max Sparks and Stephanie Burnett.
ODAC athletes competed in three different events over the past week with two of those featuring multiple distances for competition. In all cases, conference runners performed well with high finishes and several personal-best times.
This week's ODAC Runners of the Week are Roanoke's Chamberlain Zulauf and Shenandoah's Erin Atkinson.
Roughly half the league was in action over the past week with three events populated by ODAC runners. League student-athletes continue to post strong times as they ramp up for some large upcoming events in preparation for the championship season.
This week's ODAC Runners of the Week are Eastern Mennonite's Allison Shelly and Washington and Lee's Drew Woodfolk.
Several ODAC cross country teams competed over eight-kilometer (men) and six-kilometer (women) course at two events this weekend with some strong times ranking both well on school charts and as new personal-best efforts. University of Lynchburg duo Kelsey Lagunas and Frank Csorba earned this week's ODAC Runner of the Week honors.
ODAC Cross Country Runners Close Season at NCAA Championships
November 19, 2022ODAC competitors took part in the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships on Saturday afternoon. A total of 19 runners from league schools took part in six-kilometer (women) and eight-kilometer (men) races at Forest Akers East Golf Course in East Lansing, Mich.
