COMPLETE RESULTS
 
FREDERICK, Pa. – Lebanon Valley's Keri Jones was named the Runner of the Year and Julia Brewer was tabbed Rookie of the Year to lead the Flying Dutchmen at the 2019 Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Cross Country Championships, hosted by Hood College, on Saturday afternoon. LVC's women's team placed second out of 17, while the men finished fourth out of 17 this afternoon.
 
On the women's side, Jones won the individual championship after crossing the line in 21:34.3 in the 6K run, over eight seconds better than Stevenson's Emily Gates, who placed second at 21:42.9. Jones joins Kelsey Patrick as LVC's only other runner to be crowned the MAC individual champion and is now No. 2 on LVC's all-time list with her stellar time this afternoon. Additionally, Jones' time was the fastest winning mark in MAC Championships history. Brewer, who played four years of women's lacrosse for LVC and took up cross country this summer, finished 15th overall after crossing the line at 23:12.9 and earned MAC Rookie of the Year honors.


 
Lauren Wick was impressive for the Dutchmen today and placed fourth overall with a time of 22:08.8. Marah Hoffman was also solid for LVC and took 27th overall with a mark of 24:01.7. Each one of the aforementioned runners were named all-conference after finishing in the top-30. Jones and Wick landed on the First Team, Brewer on the second, and Hoffman earned third-team honors. Julia Wawrzynski ran well and narrowly missed all-conference after placing 31st with a time of 24:08.4.
 
Messiah was crowned the team champions with a score of 71, followed by LVC (77), Stevenson (82), Misericordia (87), and Eastern (91), respectively. The Falcons' Dale Fogelsanger earned MAC Coach of the Year honors.
 
"Honestly, we had a heartbreak in losing Kate Mowrey, our top returner from 2018, to injury within the last week and a half of this season," said head coach James O'Brien '07, M'16. "Our ladies did an amazing job with Kate's leadership to recalibrate, accept what we can control, and then show up ready to perform to their best of the capabilities. I'm so proud of the what they did today, besting many teams that looked like they would get us on paper in an incredibly deep conference. At the last chip mat, we were still in fifth place as a team and moved up to second over the last 500 meters of the race."
 
Keri ran a tactically, brave race to keep the pace honest, taking the lead at a mile and a half and never looking back. We thought something special was coming after the last few harder workouts she completed this fall. Just superb running. Lauren Wick is always so tough and gave us two in the top four, while Julia Brewer ran a patient race to move up well at each checkpoint to snag 15th overall. As great as our top three were, I expected it to some degree and the telling tale for us was how Marah Hoffman and Julia Wawrzynski performed. Marah ran in the high 30s to low 40s for much of the first half of the race before moving up incredibly well for a 27th-place finish, her first all-conference finish, and Julia passed 10 people in the last 500 meters of the race. These two ran way better than they were "supposed" to and that made all of the difference for us. 
 
On the men's side, Garrett Santis led the way with a 15th-place finish with a time of 26:19.6 in the 8K race. Finishing 16th overall was Noah Griffin with a mark of 26:21.0, followed by Jeff Campagna in 17th at 26:23.8. Freshman Jordan Berger performed well this afternoon and took 26th with a time of 26:36.1, his career-best. For their efforts, Santis, Griffin, and Campagna were named to the All-MAC Second Team, while Berger landed on the third team. Tanner Haynes just missed out on all-conference after finishing 31st with a time of 26:44.0, a new personal record for him.
 
Widener earned the team championship with 53 points, followed by Stevenson (70), Messiah (93), Lebanon Valley (105), and Misericordia (123), respectively. Stevenson's Patrick Watson placed first overall and was named the MAC Runner of the Year, while Widener's Gavyn Fox was tabbed rookie of the year and the Pride's Vince Touey was named coach of the year.
 
"Coming in as the sixth seed, we knew that on the right day we could move up," said O'Brien. "Overall depth and a commitment to packing up allowed us to surpass a lot of teams that beat us earlier in the year. Our top-three gave us a chance to contend and Jordan Berger and Tanner Haynes both ran huge lifetime bests to secure our fourth-place finish. This the best team finish in my coaching career and I feel like we are just getting started with this group. If we can keep a tight pack and 1-5 spread around 25 seconds, like we did today, we should be very strong at NCAA Regionals in just two week's time."


 
LVC will return to action on Saturday, Nov. 16, when a number of Dutchmen are set to run in the NCAA Mideast Regional Championships, hosted by Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa.
 
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