Charleston Southern Wins 2022 Men's Cross Country Championship
FARMVILLE, Va. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – Charleston Southern placed five runners among the top nine and finished with 25 points to win its third consecutive Big South Men’s Cross Country Championship Saturday morning in Farmville, Va. The Bucs’ Micah Gilpatric claimed the individual title on the 8K course in a time of 24:04.8 for CSU’s second individual championship in three seasons.
High Point finished second to CSU with 45 points, while UNC Asheville was third with 83 points. Gilpatric crossed the finish line just under :17 seconds ahead of teammate Alan Deogracias, who clocked a 24:21.3 time for runner-up honors. High Point’s Othmane El Gharissi was third at 24:32.7, with his teammate Spencer Smucker in fourth at 24:36.9. Rounding out the top seven were Charleston Southern’s Gavin Kuhlenbeck (fifth, 24:48.0), UNC Asheville’s Adam Hessler (sixth, 24:50.8) and High Point’s Ian Miller (seventh, 24:59.5). Those seven individuals earned First-Team All-Conference honors.
Along with Gilpatric, Deogracias and Kuhlenbeck, Jaden Kingsley (25:09.2) and Zach Wedding (25:12.6) scored for the Bucs with their eighth- and ninth-place finishes, respectively. Wedding received Freshman of the Year honors for his performance in the meet.
Following the race, Charleston Southern head coach Jim Stintzi was voted the Big South Men’s Cross Country Coach of the Year for the third-straight year, while High Point’s Lorenzo Botter was voted the Men’s Cross Country Scholar-Athlete of the Year by the league’s sports information directors. The full team standings along with this year’s honorees are listed below.
Final Team Results
1 – Charleston Southern (25)
2 – High Point (45)
3 – UNC Asheville (83)
4 – Radford (117)
5 – USC Upstate (141)
6 – Campbell (193)
7 – Winthrop (210)
8 – Longwood (224)
9 – Gardner-Webb (269)
10 – Presbyterian (294)
Individual Champion
Micah Gilpatric, Charleston Southern
Freshman of the Year
Zach Wedding, Charleston Southern
Coach of the Year
Jim Stintzi, Charleston Southern
Scholar-Athlete of the Year
Lorenzo Botter, High Point
All-Conference (Top 14 Finishers)
First-Team
Micah Gilpatric, Charleston Southern
Alan Deogracias, Charleston Southern
Othmane El Gharissi, High Point
Spencer Smucker, High Point
Gavin Kuhlenbeck, Charleston Southern
Adam Hessler, UNC Asheville
Ian Miller, High Point
Second-Team
Jaden Kingsley, Charleston Southern
Zach Wedding, Charleston Southern
Tom Joyce, Charleston Southern
Rob Howorth, Charleston Southern
John Ciprich, UNC Asheville
Sam Waldin, Charleston Southern
Patrick Kelly, High Point
All-Academic Team
Rievan Lombard, Campbell
Evan Crawford, Charleston Southern
Ryan Morita, Gardner-Webb
Lorenzo Botter, High Point
Alec Daniel, Longwood
William Johnson, Presbyterian College
Nick McCumsey, Radford
Dylan Major, UNC Asheville
Jared Keklak, USC Upstate
Nolan Weisdorfer, Winthrop