The NSU men and women’s cross country teams won their first ever title at the Sunshine State Conference Championship on Oct. 20. They competed against other SSC schools at the University of Central Florida (UCF) Sports Complex in Orlando, Fl.
The men’s cross country team won their first SSC Championship, placing first out of six teams. A junior on the women’s team, Alexandria Palm, won the Individual SSC Championship — the first in NSU’s cross country history, helping the team to place second out of seven teams.
Palm’s individual championship is the first for NSU’s cross country program. Also, the men’s title marks the 20th overall SSC Championship for NSU athletics, with 11 these titles being won since May 2010.
This year’s season was difficult for both teams. All four of this season’s meets were hosted by NCAA Division I teams, including Florida State University, University of South Florida, Oklahoma State University and Florida Gulf Coast University.
Head Coach Bryan Hagopian said the toughest part of the season was that the coaches were “bringing in a new philosophy and structure to their workouts. Watching them adapt as quickly as they did was pretty impressive.”
Freshman Jordan Brown finished in eighth place at his first SSC Championship race. The men’s team scored points with the finishing times from Kevin Meagher, Timo Kilp, Jordan Brown, Long Tran, Omar Hernandez, Nico Crecco and Nicholas Hogan.
The women’s runners that added points were Alexandria Palm, Perri Bowman, Rose Howell, Brittaney Smash, Jessica Osteen, Aimee Sims and Kristine Shogren.
Both teams have trained hard all season in hopes of them becoming conference champions.
Palm said, “I think the season has pretty much going as planned. We are getting the outcomes that we worked for.”
The cross country team’s next step towards another title is to compete at the regional tournament on Nov. 3 in Huntsville, Ala.
Hagopian realizes how strong the competition will be.
“Since it is our first year with a new philosophy, I want to see the women finish in the top 12 and men in the top 15,” he said.
The men acknowledge that even though they won the conference championship, their season is not over and they must keep working hard to be on top.
Senior Kevin Meagher said, “We have to stick to the game plan and, hopefully, we’re the strongest at the end of the race.”
