LAKELAND, Fla. – The Spring Hill College cross country team finished at the NCAA South Regional, hosted by Florida Southern, at the Holloway Park Cross Country Trails on Saturday.

Results

Both men's and women's squads finished 18th out of the scoring teams at the meet. Myles Cook led the Badger men in 96th place and clocked a personal-best time of 34:56.1 in the 10k race. His time is the second-best in program history. Thomas Monier also broke his personal record and crossed the finish line in 118th (38:15.3). Freshmen Zachary Thomas (41:03.1) and Mohammed Shahrouj (41:06.4) finished 121st and 122nd, respectively, in their first NCAA postseason appearances. Will Tate placed 123rd with a time of 43:35.2.

On the women's side, Madeline Knightly led SHC in 82nd place with a season-best time of 24:35.4. Claire Morgan finished 108th and stopped the clock at 26:28.6. Cat Dulle took 109th and clocked a time of 26:29.1 in her final collegiate competition. Jordan Jernigan (29:35.2) and Cassidy Dilks (31:24.9) finished 117th and 118th, respectively.

Meet Details
Date: Nov. 19
Venue (Location): Holloway Park Cross Country Trails (Lakeland, Fla.)

They Said It - Head Coach Craig McVey
On the meet
"Saturday was chilly, 49 degrees at race time for the men and 53 at race time for the women. Both teams raced really hard.  Our regional is annually one of the toughest in the country.  What our returners learned from being in that race will serve us well moving forward.  We're on the edge of jumping up performance-wise in our region.  We redshirted several on both squads this year.  Will that affect you? Absolutely, but the progress both teams made during the season is huge.  We already mentioned that we lost four from each top 7 from last year, but the work this crew did to bridge the gap is really special. Saturday, we had several under the weather health-wise and it affected us,  that happens, but it didn't keep us from running a full team, some programs didn't race for that reason. A huge breakthrough Saturday was Myles Cook, he was on the All-Conference team this year and it was a matter of time before he did something really special. His 10,000 M time Saturday puts him [at] No. 2 on our all-time 10,000 M cross country list.  He is just entering the realm which will be his standard moving forward.  He gets it now, it's been a process of him really understanding how good he could be, now he gets it!  He will be a huge factor for us moving ahead. The work ethic this group elevated to will help next year's teams encounter very new goals.  As we add our recruiting class we're looking at some really special things ahead."

On Will Tate
"In his last collegiate [cross country] race Will had an injury occur that we won't go into detail about, but it seriously affected his competitiveness and ability to race.  He would have broken our men's 10k school record, no doubt about it. To be so affected he could barely run was heartbreaking.  He'll return for our outdoor season, but has to recover from his injury. Will holds two of our top-5, 10k  times, a handful of our best 8,000m times, and has been on the All-Conference team twice in only three seasons.  He has been our number one runner for two full seasons. He's had a great career."

On Cat Dulle
"Cat is someone that we would not have won our last two conference titles without.  She has won All-Conference honors three times in three years.  She is not the same runner we recruited from high school.  She was tough out of high school, but she has added such an intensity about everything she does, it's amazing and inspiring to those around her.  She is such a smart racer, we've depended on that since she's been with us and her teammates know they can count on her every time out. Saturday was her last college race and to say we will miss her is a huge understatement."

On Madeline Knightly
"Maddie has had just a stellar career, she's been on the All-Conference team three times and has been our No. 1 runner spread out over 2 seasons.  This year she led us every time out.  Maddie has grown into a tough 'gotta get it done' racer.  Her biggest plus is that she is so consistent. She finds the top runners in every race and just goes right at them.  Maddie has a handful of our top 5,000m and 6,000m times and has been one of the top runners in our conference her entire career.  Saturday at our NCAA Regional, she defeated our current SIAC Champion. What a great exclamation point added to her career. We know what we need to do to keep moving along, toward where we know we can be, we've made so much progress, yet we have so much more we know we can do. We're still young in being a Division II program and the cool thing is we know exactly where we can go next."

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