Fontbonne Men's Cross Country Claims Second Consecutive SLIAC Title
ELSAH, Ill. - The Fontbonne University men's cross country team claimed their second consecutive St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SLIAC) title with a first place finish out of six teams at the 2009 SLIAC Championships held at Principia College. The championship is only the second in the program history, as the Griffins edged Greenville College by the small margin of four points.
Principia College's Drew Clark claimed the individual crown by posting a time of 20:42.99 on the 4-mile course to be named the Men's Cross Country Runner and Newcomer of the Year.
Greenville, Principia, Spalding University, Webster University and Westminster College placed second through sixth respectively. There was only a four point difference between first and second place, as Fontbonne finished with 36 points and four runners in the top 10. Greenville posted a team score of 40 points and had three runners in the top 10.
Fontbonne was led by Ethan Blakely (21:14.79), Todd Schulte (21:22.01), Zach Kassman (21:24.48) and Mike Horn (21:25.37) in fourth, sixth, seventh and eighth place respectively. Rounding out the top five were Greenville's Rodyney Oyler (21:08.13) and Cole Prins (21:11.70) in second and third place respectively, while Principia's Jeff Strickland (21:21.44) placed fifth overall.
Earning All-Conference honors for the men were Clark, Oyler, Prins, Blakely, Strickland, Schulte and Kassman on the First Team. Second Team All-SLIAC honors were given to Horn, Greenville's Xavier Ortiz, Leo Pathy and Coree Woltering, Spalding's Alec Zaremba and Abram Deng and Fontbonne's Ian Lindquist.
Also announced during the All-Star Trophy Awards Ceremony following the race was Fontbonne head coach Dave Almany as SLIAC Coach of the Year, while Principia College received the Sportsmanship Award.
