11/13/02
The Rhodes men's cross country team earned 4th at the NCAA South/Southeast Regional Championship, hosted by Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Senior captain Brian McCarthy led Rhodes with his 2nd place individual finish, earning the first of five individual qualifying spots for the NCAA Championships next weekend in Northfield, Minnesota.
Emory University won the team title for the fourth consecutive year, scoring just 37 points and earning the region's lone men's team berth to the NCAA Championships. Lynchburg College edged Christopher Newport University by 2 points for second place. Rhodes tallied 124 points for 4th place out of seventeen complete teams. Emory junior Phil Hagedorn outlasted McCarthy in the final meters of the race for the individual victory in a time of 25:31 over the rain-soaked and muddy 8030-meter course at John L. Pratt Park.
McCarthy ran conservatively in the lead pack of more than 20 runners during the first 3 miles of the race before surging into the lead near the 3.5 mile mark. His injection of pace quickly broke up the pack, and McCarthy opened up a lead of nearly 40 meters with 800 meters to go. Hagedorn slowly reeled the leader in before outsprinting McCarthy to the line in the last 100 meters. Despite falling just short of the Regional title, McCarthy's time of 25:35 was a lifetime best and earned him a trip to the NCAA Championships for the second time in his collegiate career. The Lynx captain also qualified for Nationals as a sophomore, where he placed 113th overall in Spokane, Washington.
Freshman Colin Strickland and sophomore Matt Wood ran as the Lynx 2nd and 3rd men, respectively, as both earned All-Region honors by finishing in the meet's top 25. Strickland's 26:22 for 15th left him just 12 seconds shy of the final individual NCAA qualifying position. Wood ran 26:39 for 23rd. Todd Ridley (27:11 for 41st) and Bill Harrison (27:15 for 43rd) closed out Rhodes' scoring. The top five Lynx runners all earned personal best times. Harrison, the squad's only other senior besides McCarthy, ended his collegiate cross country career with his best-ever Regional meet finish. Matthew Sauter and John Harrison rounded out the Lynx top seven by taking 59th and 93rd, respectively.
Full Results
