University of Richmond Athletics
Friday, March 5
Mechanicsville, Va. (Pole Green Park)
10 AM
University of Richmond
vs
Atlantic 10 Championship
Photo by: Atlantic 10 Conference
Spiders Win Atlantic 10 Championship at Pole Green Park
03/05/2021 | Cross Country
MECHANICSVILLE, Va. – Spider men's cross country won the Atlantic 10 Championship Friday afternoon at Pole Green Park in Mechanicsville. Richmond placed two in the top three spots of the race, with four finishing in the top 10 overall to earn All-Conference honors and bring the trophy back to the University of Richmond. This is the Spider's second Atlantic 10 Championship, with the last coming in 2010. Head coach Steve Taylor was named the Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year after his team's performance. This is Coach Taylor's fourth Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year award, and his second as a Spider, having won while coaching at Virginia Tech in 1996 and 1997, and with Richmond in 2010.
"Our guys were brilliant today." Head coach Steve Taylor said, "They executed the perfect race plan from top to bottom. We had 10 guys on the course, and they all ran brilliantly. Their self-discipline has been amazing. Since August, these men have been living a monk's life of running, studying, running, studying. Not one single positive COVID test by any of our cross country runners. It's like they've been a caged animal getting poked by a stick for eight months and today the cage door was opened and they let it all go on to the course. All their training and pent up energy, stress and worry was released out there on the course. I couldn't be more excited for the guys, what they've done, and the example they've set for this athletic department and the university."
Four Spiders earned All Atlantic 10 honors for their efforts Friday. Freshman Stuart Terrill (Crozet, Va.) took home the top time for the team, finishing second overall at 24:31.3. With Terrill's efforts, he was named the Atlantic 10 Rookie Performer as the top freshman in the meet, the first Spider to be named Most Outstanding Rookie Performer since Andrew Benford was the league's top rookie in 2006. Peter Borger (Malvern, Pa.) was hot on his heels, finishing third at 24:36.9. Senior Noah Yuro (Howell, N.J.) added a sixth-place finish at 24:41.9 and Noah Campbell (Montpelier, Va.) added a top 10 time at 24:50.8.
Coming on strong down the final stretch to earn 23rd and the final point scorer for the Spiders was Riley Fletcher (East Northport, Va.). Fletcher finished in 25:16.5. Other finishers for the Spiders were Patrick Sutphin (Mechanicsville, Va.), taking 30th at 25:25.6, and James Quinn (Nutley, N.J.) taking 43rd at 25:46.9. Sean Doolan (Looudonville, Ky.) added a personal-best time of 25:49.2, with Robert Gunia (Fredericksburg, Va.) and Tanner Crochet (Monmouth, N.J.) each earning PRs of their own at 26:01.8 and 26:02.0, respectively.
The Spiders amassed just 44 points en route to the victory. That total is the lowest team score for a champion since 2013, when La Salle won with a point total of 27. That event was also hosted at Pole Green Park. With the conclusion of this year's meet, Richmond has now hosted five championship meets at Pole Green Park (2013, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2021), and have won a team championship in four of those seasons (Men's XC 2021, Women's XC 2018, Women's XC 2016, and Women's XC 2015).
The Richmond men await their opportunity to compete at the NCAA National Championships on Monday, March 15th in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The NCAA selection show will be streamed on March 7th on NCAA.com.
"They were dedicated to race this fall, that didn't happen, but here we are in the winter and they pull off an incredible upset from an outside perspective." Taylor continued. "As a coach, I had the utmost confidence in these guys, they've been on it from every day they come to practice. Rain, snow, ice, whatever it was. We had so much bad weather there for a week and a half, and not once did anyone ask to run on the treadmill, or cross train, not one of them. They all went outside and laid it on the line for each other. I'm really happy and excited for them, and now we wait for the decision at the national level."
-- UR --
"Our guys were brilliant today." Head coach Steve Taylor said, "They executed the perfect race plan from top to bottom. We had 10 guys on the course, and they all ran brilliantly. Their self-discipline has been amazing. Since August, these men have been living a monk's life of running, studying, running, studying. Not one single positive COVID test by any of our cross country runners. It's like they've been a caged animal getting poked by a stick for eight months and today the cage door was opened and they let it all go on to the course. All their training and pent up energy, stress and worry was released out there on the course. I couldn't be more excited for the guys, what they've done, and the example they've set for this athletic department and the university."
Four Spiders earned All Atlantic 10 honors for their efforts Friday. Freshman Stuart Terrill (Crozet, Va.) took home the top time for the team, finishing second overall at 24:31.3. With Terrill's efforts, he was named the Atlantic 10 Rookie Performer as the top freshman in the meet, the first Spider to be named Most Outstanding Rookie Performer since Andrew Benford was the league's top rookie in 2006. Peter Borger (Malvern, Pa.) was hot on his heels, finishing third at 24:36.9. Senior Noah Yuro (Howell, N.J.) added a sixth-place finish at 24:41.9 and Noah Campbell (Montpelier, Va.) added a top 10 time at 24:50.8.
Coming on strong down the final stretch to earn 23rd and the final point scorer for the Spiders was Riley Fletcher (East Northport, Va.). Fletcher finished in 25:16.5. Other finishers for the Spiders were Patrick Sutphin (Mechanicsville, Va.), taking 30th at 25:25.6, and James Quinn (Nutley, N.J.) taking 43rd at 25:46.9. Sean Doolan (Looudonville, Ky.) added a personal-best time of 25:49.2, with Robert Gunia (Fredericksburg, Va.) and Tanner Crochet (Monmouth, N.J.) each earning PRs of their own at 26:01.8 and 26:02.0, respectively.
The Spiders amassed just 44 points en route to the victory. That total is the lowest team score for a champion since 2013, when La Salle won with a point total of 27. That event was also hosted at Pole Green Park. With the conclusion of this year's meet, Richmond has now hosted five championship meets at Pole Green Park (2013, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2021), and have won a team championship in four of those seasons (Men's XC 2021, Women's XC 2018, Women's XC 2016, and Women's XC 2015).
The Richmond men await their opportunity to compete at the NCAA National Championships on Monday, March 15th in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The NCAA selection show will be streamed on March 7th on NCAA.com.
"They were dedicated to race this fall, that didn't happen, but here we are in the winter and they pull off an incredible upset from an outside perspective." Taylor continued. "As a coach, I had the utmost confidence in these guys, they've been on it from every day they come to practice. Rain, snow, ice, whatever it was. We had so much bad weather there for a week and a half, and not once did anyone ask to run on the treadmill, or cross train, not one of them. They all went outside and laid it on the line for each other. I'm really happy and excited for them, and now we wait for the decision at the national level."
-- UR --
Players Mentioned
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