SPRING 2008

Cross Country

The Shorter men’s cross country team headed to Kenosha, Wis., for nationals after taking first place in the region championship at Berry College.

Despite the foggy, cold conditions at the region championship, the Hawks performed their best of the season, finishing with the top four runners in the contest. In dramatic fashion, Jerad Godsave and Martin Hernandez held hands as they crossed at nearly the same time. Hernandez took the top time by 44/100 of a second and captured the Region Runner of the Year award with a time of 26:26.50. Godsave’s time was 26:26.94.

Following soon after were two more Hawks who also ran side-by-side to finish the race: Steven Rich and Josh Carson. Rich took third place with a time of 26:48.21, and Carson was less than half a second behind at 26:48.63. Cyrus Wakaba rounded out the Hawks top five (14th - 27:33.70) to give Shorter a final score of 24, ahead of Berry’s second-place 54 points and Lee University’s 71 points. Carson, Godsave, Hernandez and Rich were named to the All-Conference and All-Region teams. Head coach Jay Stephenson was named the Region XIII and Southern States Athletic Conference Coach of the Year. “I’m amazed at how well our guys ran,” said Stephenson. “No one on this team is willing to give up at any point. We’ve had some adversity this season, and we’ve learned that those times can be a blessing through the experience and growth that can come from them.”

The next step for the Hawks was Kenosha, Wis., for the NAIA National Championship, where the team finished in 24th place with 583 points.

Hernandez was the top finisher for the Hawks in 84th place (26:08.3) on the 8k course.

Magrina Chepkoech, the lone Lady Hawk in nationals, finished in an exceptional 46th place in the 5k course. Her time was 18:40.1. She qualified for nationals following a second-place finish in the region meet.