Bucs Finish Seventh at Big South Cross Country Championship; King Named to All-Academic Team

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The Liberty Flames won 2009 New Balance Big South Men’s Cross Country Championship presented by UCS and Penguin Sport-Wash at the Shady Oaks course in Winston-Salem, N.C. on Saturday morning.  The Flames’ Samuel Chelanga finished first in the men’s 8K to take home Runner of the Year honors.

Liberty posted 33 points, followed by High Point (46 points) and Coastal Carolina (59).  In fourth-place was Virginia Military Institute with 107 points and UNC Asheville closed the top five with 133 points.  In sixth was Winthrop with 150 points and in seventh was Charleston Southern with 199 points.  Gardner-Webb (225) and Radford (247) rounded out the list.

"Obviously we would have liked to have finished higher than seventh, but we improved quite a bit over last year's ninth-place finish," said Head Coach Ryan Thompson. "Shaun and Jesse stepped up big for us today and that made a huge difference. I'm excited about what these guys can do in the future."

Andrew King led the way for the Buccaneers, clocking in at 27:19 in 22nd place. Shaun Bisson ran 27:54 to finish 31st overall, but took 45 seconds off his time from the Big South Preview meet on the same course on Sept. 19Mat Smith finished third for CSU with a time of 28:54, 47th overall, and four seconds faster than his first attempt at the course.

Jesse Huff finished 62nd in 30:06, edging out Chris Seigler by a second. Brandon Harris rounded out the CSU finishers in 30:59, 67th place.

The 28:52 average time for CSU was :24 faster than their average at the Big South Preview.

The season is not finished for CSU as the Bucs will compete in the NCAA East Regional in Louisville, Ky., November 14.

2009 Runner of the Year
Sam Chelanga, Liberty

2009 Freshman of theYear
Jacob Smith, High Point

2009 Big South All-Conference Team
Sam Chelanga, Liberty
Evans Kiegan, Liberty
Josh Morgan, High Point
Jaime McCarthy, Coastal Carolina
Kyle Kling, Coastal Carolina
Max Hacker, Coastal Carolins
Neal Darmody, High Point
David Ricksecker, Liberty
Jacob Smith, High Point
Jake Reed, Liberty

2009 Scholar-Athlete of the Year
Jason Wenzel, Gardner-Webb

2009 Cross Country All-Academic Team
Jason Wenzel, Gardner-Webb
Josh Morgan, High Point
Kyle Kling, Coastal Carolina
Mark Hopely, Liberty
Adam Freudenthal, Winthrop
Matt Satterwhite, VMI
Andrew King, Charleston Southern
Nicholas Baer, Presbyterian
Nathan Turner, Radford

Coach of the Year
Brant Tolsma, Liberty

Meet Results