Charleston Southern Wins 2021 Men's Cross Country Championship
KERNERSVILLE, N.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – Charleston Southern placed five runners among the top seven and finished with 24 points to win its second consecutive Big South Men’s Cross Country Championship Friday afternoon in Kernersville, N.C. Campbell’s Athanas Kioko claimed the individual title on the 8K course in a time of 23:16.8 for his second individual championship in three years.
High Point finished second to CSU with 50 points, while UNC Asheville was third with 98 points -- the Bulldogs’ highest finish since a runner-up standing in 2000. Kioko crossed the finish line :33 seconds ahead of Charleston Southern’s Fearghal Curtin, who clocked a 23:49.3 time for runner-up honors. High Point’s Hocine Bouchrak was third at 24:26.0, with the CSU quartet of Alan Deogracias (24:47.3), Micah Gilpatric (24:50.4), Jaymee Domoney (24:56.7) and Gavin Kuhlenbeck (24:57.1) rounding out the top seven. Those seven individuals earned First-Team All-Conference honors.
USC Upstate’s Logan Patete was the top freshman finisher in the meet with a time of 26:37.0 for 33rd-place, and received Freshman of the Year accolades for his performance.
Following the race, Charleston Southern head coach Jim Stintzi was voted the Big South Men’s Cross Country Coach of the Year for the second-straight year, while USC Upstate’s Jared Keklak was voted the Men’s Cross Country Scholar-Athlete of the Year by the league’s sports information directors for the second consecutive season. The full team standings along with this year’s honorees are listed below.
Final Team Results
1 – Charleston Southern (24)
2 – High Point (50)
3 – UNC Asheville (98)
4 – North Carolina A&T (126)
5 – Campbell (129)
6 – Radford (141)
7 – USC Upstate (170)
8 – Winthrop (216)
9 – Longwood (251)
10 – Gardner-Webb (316)
11 – Presbyterian (326)
12 – Hampton (346)
Individual Champion
Athanas Kioko, Campbell
Freshman of the Year
Logan Patete, USC Upstate
Coach of the Year
Jim Stintzi, Charleston Southern
Scholar-Athlete of the Year
Jared Keklak, USC Upstate
All-Conference (Top 14 Finishers)
First-Team
Athanas Kioko, Campbell
Fearghal Curtin, Charleston Southern
Hocine Bouchrak, High Point
Alan Deogracias, Charleston Southern
Micah Gilpatric, Charleston Southern
Jaymee Domoney, Charleston Southern
Gavin Kuhlenbeck, Charleston Southern
Second-Team
Spencer Smucker, High Point
Jaden Kingsley, Charleston Southern
Rayan Vanderpoorten, High Point
Nate Jennings, Radford
John Ciprich, UNC Asheville
Morris Kimble, North Carolina A&T
Hunter Steinau, High Point
All-Academic Team
Rievan Lombard, Campbell
Alan Deogracias, Charleston Southern
Patrick Sastre, Gardner-Webb
Dugion Blackman, Hampton
Hocine Bouchrak, High Point
Nicholas Howell, Longwood
Morris Kimble, North Carolina A&T
William Johnson, Presbyterian College
Sam Sikora, Radford
Nathaniel Edwards, UNC Asheville
Jared Keklak, USC Upstate
Austin Spencer, Winthrop