CHARLESTON – The Charleston Southern Men's Cross Country team claimed their fifth consecutive Big South Conference Championship on Friday morning on their home course as they served as the institution the 2024 meet. Despite trailing in the team score to High Point halfway through the race, the Buccaneers were able to strategically move up in the pack to defend their title and continue their run of success over the past half decade.
 
Charleston Southern had a quartet of Buccaneers earn First-Team All-Conference honors in Zach Mickler, Sam Waldin, Caleb Kenyon and Martin Iriondo. Christian Mariner took home Second-Team All-Conference honors along with a nod onto the All-Academic Team. Charleston Southern's Director of Track & Field and Cross Country, Jim Stintzi, earned Men's Coach of the Year.
 
The highly anticipated race did not disappoint from start to finish, providing drama all 20+ minutes spent on the course. At the start of the race, Lin Scott took the race out from the start, taking a substantial lead for the first kilometer before being absorbed back into the rest of the field to give the race a big level of excitement to start it out.
 
At the midway point, High Point led in the team title race of 30 while Charleston Southern had 34. In the lead group of 18 at the time, the Panthers had eight runners in the batch while the Bucs only had six, leaving little room for error. Over the next two kilometers, HPU was able to hold strong while some of the Bucs started to get dropped, keeping lots of numbers in the front as they were looking to end the CSU championship streak.
 
However, coming into the final two kilometers, some of the High Point runners started to drop off the lead pack as well. While this happened, many of the Bucs found a second wind and were able to overcome the Panthers in these final minutes, slowly knocking down the CSU team score and putting the championship title back within reach.
 
As the teams got within the vision of the spectators at the finish line, High Point's Hunter Steinau outran Asheville's Adam Hessler and Paul Kiprotich to take the individual title with a time of 24:05.9.
 
Once this group was done, Charleston Southern's Zach Mickler appeared at the end of the tunnel with a trio of Buccaneers following him with no one behind that group. Mickler cruised in to take 4^th overall and be CSU's top finisher at the race at 24:32.6. Following him were Sam Waldin, Caleb Kenyon and Martin Iriondo crossing at 24:36.6, 24:37.9 and 24:39.1. The Bucs took 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th and just needed a fifth runner to cross the line and complete their scoring.
 
High Point's runners started to feed in after dropping in the final parts of the race, taking 8^th, 9^th, 11^th and 12^th to give them a team score of 41.
 
Needing Charleston Southern to get their fifth and final scorer, Christian Mariner reached the home stretch, taking 14^th overall and a time of 25:00.2 to give them a total score of 36, clinching the victory.
 
Charleston Southern will now prepare for the NCAA Regionals which will be run on the morning of Friday, November 15 and be hosted in Rock Hill, South Carolina with Winthrop serving as the host institution.
 
A full listing of CSU results, team results and awards from Friday morning's race can be found below.
 
CSU Individual Results
4 – Zach Mickler – 24:32.6
5 – Sam Waldin – 24:36.6
6 – Caleb Kenyon – 24:37.9
7 – Martin Iriondo – 24:39.1
14 – Christian Mariner – 25:00.2
17 – Jeff Wedding – 25:10.9
24 – Lin Scott – 25:38.3
31 – Matt Bauer – 26:07.1
38 – Mason Raasch – 26:29.5
42 – Zack Wedding – 26:43.3
 
Final Team Results
1 – Charleston Southern (36)
2 – High Point (41)
3 – UNC Asheville (58)
4 – Radford (126)
5 – Longwood (145)
6 – USC Upstate (153)
7 – Winthrop (221)
8 – Gardner-Webb (224)
9 – Presbyterian (282)
 
Individual Champion
Hunter Steinau, High Point
 
Freshman of the Year
Paul Kiprotich, UNC Asheville
 
Newcomer of the Year
Zach Mickler, Charleston Southern
 
Coach of the Year
Jim Stintzi, Charleston Southern
 
Scholar-Athlete of the Year
Liam McDonald, Radford
 
All-Conference (Top 14 Finishers)
First-Team
Hunter Steinau, High Point
Adam Hessler, UNC Asheville
Paul Kiprotich, UNC Asheville
Zach Mickler, Charleston Southern
Sam Waldin, Charleston Southern
Caleb Kenyon, Charleston Southern
Martin Iriondo, Charleston Southern
 
Second-Team
Gavin Stevens, High Point
Graham Ferguson, High Point
Jan Malek, UNC Asheville
Avery Crowell, High Point
Kyler Koning, High Point
Asrael Cabusoa, Radford
Christian Mariner, Charleston Southern
 
All-Academic Team
Christian Mariner, Charleston Southern, Jr.
Mark Mellon, Gardner-Webb, Sr.
Gavin Stevens, High Point, Soph.
Alec Daniel, Longwood, Sr.
Noah Kaufman, Presbyterian, Soph.
Liam McDonald, Radford, Jr.
Quinn Jacquez, UNC Asheville, Jr.
Sam Shimanskiy, USC Upstate, Jr.
Chadwick Sisson, Winthrop, Soph.