October 4, 2008

Complete Results
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BELMONT, N.C.—The St. Andrews Presbyterian College men’s cross country team remains unbeaten after winning its third straight race on Saturday by placing all five scoring runners in the top-10 of the field at the Belmont Abbey Invitational.

The Knights had the first three runners cross the finish line en route to the victory. Senior Mitch Cooper (Virginia Beach, Va.) was the gold medalist, junior Pedro Tapia Jr. snagged Silver, and sophomore Doug Holt (Toms River, N.J.) took bronze.

Cooper, who has finished first in two races this season and runner-up in his other race, was the first entrant across the 8k finish line at the Brother Paul Course out of 45 runners. Cooper was the only harrier in the field to break under the 27 minute mark with a blazing time of 26:48.

Tapia finished second to Cooper for the second time this season concluding the race just 21 seconds later at 27:09. Holt’s third place result with a speedy time of 27:52 was his highest finish of his second season.

The No. 4 Southeast Region ranked Knights won the team title easily with 23 points (with a perfect score being 15 points) and 43 points head of their next nearest competitor. SAPC defeated Southeast Region schools Carson-Newman College, Belmont Abbey College, Pfeiffer University, and Barton College.

Sophomore Josh Pickett (Asheville, N.C.) logged is second straight top-10 finish placing seventh by crossing the finish line in 29:11.

St. Andrews dominated the race even though they did not compete with a full lineup. Junior Brad McKee (Kings Mountain, N.C.) stepped up for the Knights completing the teams scoring five runners with his first collegiate top-10 result finishing 10th with a time of 29:44.

Sophomore Tommy Wilson (Salisbury, N.C.) and senior Patrick Hogan (Denton, N.C.) were 13th and 15th, respectively, with times of 30:23 and 30:52. Sophomore Jon Lecker (Minneola, Fla.) completed the Knights running in 17th at 31:04.

St. Andrews next competes in the Anderson University Invitational on Saturday, October 11 at 9:30 a.m.